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Moulton Library 

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Presented by 



The Rev. Robert Howard 



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'ReseatcH School 

O(-0O0n.=i20 of 

Theology 
Library 




A Missionary Twig. Frontispiece. 



MISSIONARY TWIG 



BY 

EMMA L. BURNETT. 




AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 

150 NASSAU STREET. NEW YORK. 



COPYRIGHT, 1S90, 
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY. 



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CHAPTER I. 

Edith Tries to Explain 5 

CHAPTER n. 

What Mrs. Howell told them 14 

CHAPTER in. 

Marty Gets Started 21 

CHAPTER IV. 

Wholes instead of Tenths 29 

CHAPTER V. 

The Ebony Chair 39 

CHAPTER VI. 

The Empty Box 46 

CHAPTER VII. 

How Missions Helped the Home Folks 54 

CHAPTER VIII. 

*' Not in the Good Times " 61 

CHAPTER IX. 

Jennie 72 



4 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER X. 
Laura Amelia ^2 

CHAPTER XL 
The Good Shepherd 91 

CHAPTER Xn. 

" Now Don't Forget!" 99 

CHAPTER Xni. 

Off to the Mountains 108 

CHAPTER XIV. 

A Plan and a Talk 115 

CHAPTER XV. 

The Mountain Mission-Band 126 

CHAPTER XVI. 
A Flower Sale ^35 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Weeding ^44 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

The Hotel Missionary Meeting 156 

CHAPTER XIX. 

The Garden Missionary Meeting 166 

CHAPTER XX. 

Cousin Alice's Zenana Work ^77 

CHAPTER XXI. 

Rosa Stevenson's Sister 189 



MISSIONARY TWIG. 



CHAPTER I. 

EDITH TRIES TO EXPLAIN. 

. " I DO think Edith is the queerest girl I ever 
saw in all my life!" said Marty Ashford. 

'' Do n't jump up and down behind my chair 
that way, Marty," said her mother; ''you shake 
me so that I can scarcely hold my needle. What 
does Edith do that is so queer?" 

''Oh, she 's always putting ten into things." 

" Putting ten into things?" 

" Yes 'm. I mean when she gets any money 
she always says ten will go into it so many 
times, and then she takes a tenth of it— you 
know we learn about tenths in fractions at 
school — and goes and puts it in a blue box she 
has." 

" I should call that taking ten out of things." 

" Well, whatever it is, that 's what she does. 



6 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

Every time she gets ten cents she puts one cent 
in her blue box." 

"What does she do if she only gets five 
cents?" 

**0h, she keeps it very carefully till she gets 
another five, and then she takes her tenth out 
of it. And would you believe it, when we were 
all at Asbury Park last summer — " 

"Marty," interrupted her mother, ''can 't you 
tell me just as well sitting still? You fidget so 
that you make me dreadfully nervous. Can't 
you sit still?" 

'' I do n't believe I can, but I '11 try real hard," 
said Marty, crowding herself into Freddie's little 
rocking-chair and clasping her arms around her 
knees, as if to hold herself still. 

"Well, what about Asbury Park?" Mrs. Ash- 
ford asked. 

"Why, when we were at Asbury Park and 
Edith's father was going to New York, he gave 
her a whole dollar to do what she pleased with. 
Now you know it would be the easiest thing in 
the world to spend a dollar there. I could spend 
it just as easy as anything." 

"I dare say you could," said Mrs. Ashford, 
laughing. 

"And any way you know it was vacation, 
and even if you save tenths other times you 
ought n't to feel as if you must do it in vacation. 



EDITH TRIES TO EXPLAIN. 7 

But Edith had to go and get her dollar changed 
and put ten cents of it in the old blue box." 

*'So she would not take a vacation from her 
tenths?" 

" No, indeed. And the other day when her 
uncle from Baltimore was here, he gave her fifty 
cents, and it would just pay for a perfectly lovely 
paint-box that she wants ; but she could n't buy 
it because five cents of the fifty was tenths ; and 
now she '11 have to wait till she gets some more 
money." 

'' What does she do with all the money in the 
blue box?" Mrs. Ashford inquired. 

/'Oh, she gives it to some mission-band !" re- 
plied Marty in a tone of disgust. 

''Is that the mission-band Miss Agnes Walsh 
wanted you to join?" 

" Yes, ma'am ; but I did n't want to take up 
my Saturdays going to a thing like that. I 'd 
rather play." 

"Let me see," said Mrs. Ashford, "what is 
the name of that band?" 

''Missionary Twigs,'' replied Marty. "Funny 
kind of a name, is n't it?" 

Then presently she said, "I do n't think 
Edith always takes the.tenths out fair ; for when 
her grandma was away lately for six days she 
paid Edith three cents a day for watering her 
plants, and of course that was eighteen cents. 



8 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

So the tenth was a good deal over one cent and 
not quite two, and yet Edith put two cents of it 
away." 

"I think that was more than fair." 

''Well, I suppose it was," Marty admitted. 
She actually sat quite still for two or three min- 
utes thinking, and then asked, 

"Mamma — I never thought of this before — 
but what do you suppose is the reason she 
saves tenths ? Why does n't she save ninths or 
elevenths or something else?" 

"Why don't you ask her?" suggested Mrs. 
Ashford. 

" I will," exclaimed Marty. " I '11 ask her the 
very next time I go over there." 

Which was in about five minutes, for Edith 
lived in the same block and the little girls were 
constantly visiting each other. This being Sat- 
urday, of course there was no school. Marty ran 
in at the side gate and through the kitchen with 
a " How do, Mary ?" to the cook. Edith heard 
her coming and called over the stairs, 

" O Marty, come right up ! I was just wish- 
ing you would come over and help me." 

Marty flew up stairs and into the nursery. 
Edith's dolls were sitting in a row on the little 
bureau, some dressed and some undressed, and 
Edith was standing in front of them looking 
very much perplexed. 



EDITH TRIES TO EXPLAIN. 9 

"Oh! I'm so glad you've come," she said. 
" Now you can help me with these troublesome 
dolls." 

''What 's the matter with them?" 

" Why, we 've just heard that Aunt Julia and 
Fanny are coming to tea this evening, and of 
course I want the dolls to look decent. I 
would n't have Fanny see them in their every- 
day clothes for anything ; and they do n't seem 
to have enough good clothes to go around." 

"Let's see what they've got," said Marty, 
plunging into business with her usual energy. 

"Well," said Edith, "Oueenie has her new 
white Swiss, so she 's all right, and she can have 
Virginia's surah sash. Louisa Alcott can wear 
her black silk skirt and borrow Queenie's blue 
cashmere waist. But Harriet has nothing fit for 
an evening." 

"Let her wear the sailor suit she came in, 
and say she 's just home from the seaside," sug- 
gested Marty, after a moment's meditation. 

"Yes, that will do," replied Edith. "But 
what about Virginia ? Her white dress is soiled, 
her red gauze is badly torn, and she can 't bor- 
row from the others because she 's so much 
larger. To be sure she has this pale blue tea- 
gown I made myself. Do you think it would be 
good enough?" and she held it up doubtfully. 

"No," said Marty candidly, "I don't think 



10 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

it would. It isn't made very well. It's kind 
of baggy. Has n't she anything else ?" 

^' Nothing but a brown woollen walking 
dress and a Mother Hubbard wrapper." 

^* Neither of those will do," Marty decided. 

Then she put her finger to her lip and 
thought. 

A bright idea occurred to her presently. 

" Put her to bed and make believe she 's 
sick. She can wear the best night-dress, trim- 
med with lace, and we can put on the ruffled 
pillow-cases and fix up the bed real nice." 

"That will be splendid!" cried Edith. ''I 
knew you 'd think of something !" 

They went to work on the plans proposed, 
and soon had the whole family in presentable 
condition. So busy were they with the dolls 
that Marty would have forgotten the errand 
she came on, had she not happened to catch a 
glimpse of the blue box when Edith opened a 
drawer. Then she exclaimed, 

*' Oh ! Edie, what I came over for was to ask 
you why you save tenths." 

'' Why I do what?" said Edith, wondering. 

"Why you put tenths away in your box. 
Why don't you save eighths or ninths or 
something else ?" 

" Because the Bible says tenths," Edith re- 
plied. 



EDITH TRIES TO EXPLAIN. II 

'' The Bible !" cried Marty. '' Does the Bible 
say anything about saving tenths for a mission- 
band?" 

*' No, not just that ; but it says — wait, I '11 
get my Bible and show you what it does say." 

She ran into her room, and bringing her 
Bible, sat down on a low chair and eagerly 
ttirned the leaves. Marty knelt close beside 
her, bending over the book also, so that her 
brown curls pressed against Edith's wavy golden 
hair. 

" Here 's one of the verses," said Edith. 
"Leviticus, twenty - seventh chapter and thir- 
tieth verse : ' And all the tithe of the land, 
whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit 
of the tree, is the Lord's ; it is holy unto the 
Lord.' " 

" There 's nothing about tenths in that," 
said Marty. 

"Tithes means tenths — the tenth part," 
Edith explained. 

" Oh ! does it ? Well, you see, I did n't know." 

"Yes; here it is in the thirty-second verse: 
*And concerning the tithe of the herd or of 
the flock, even of whatsoever passeth under the 
rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the Lord.' '* 

" But there 's nothing in all that about mon- 
ey," Marty objected. " It 's all fruit and flocks 
and herds." 



12 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

'' I know," Edith replied, " but mamma says 
that flocks and herds and money are all differ- 
ent kinds of property. The Jews had n't much 
money ; their property was flocks and herds and 
such things. Giving tenths of what they had 
for the Lord's service was a very important 
part of their religion." 

" Yes, but you are not a Jew," said IMarty. 
*' Besides, you give your tenths to a mission- 
band." 

*' But the mission-band sends the money to a 
big society that uses it to send people to tell the 
heathen about God." 

'' Is that what mission-bands are for — to send 
people to teach the heathen ?" asked Marty. 

''Yes, and to tell us about the heathen, so 
that we shall want to send the gospel to them," 
said Edith. '' Giving to help teach people about 
God is giving to him, isn't it?" 

"And does the Bible say that everybody 
must give tenths ?" asked Marty. 

*^ No," said Edith, " there is another plan in 
the New Testament. Mamma says that it is 
good for older people, but for little children 
who have n't good judgment, the Jewish plan of 
giving tenths is better." 

" It must be pretty hard to have to give some 
of your money away, whether you want to or 
not," said Marty. 



EDITH TRIES TO EXPLAIN. 1 3 

'' Oh ! but I always want to," Edith declared. 
'' The longer I do this way the better I like it." 

''Well," remarked Marty consolingly, "a. 
tenth isn't much any way; you'd hardly miss 
it. Neither would the Jews, for I guess they 
were pretty rich." 

" Oh ! the tenth was n't all they gave, and it 
is n't all I give. For me it is just the — the — be- 
ginning, the sure thing. The Jews had other 
ways of giving — first-fruits and thank-offerings 
and praise-offerings and free-will-offerings. And 
sometimes I give thank-offerings and praise- 
offerings too, but they are extra ; the tenths I 
give always." 

" It 's all dreadfully mixed up," said poor 
Marty. 

'' I suppose it is, the way I tell it," Edith 
candidly admitted. '' Let us go and get mam- 
ma to tell you, the way she told me." 

Marty willingly agreed, and they went into 
the sitting-room where Mrs. Howell was sewing. 



14 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 



CHAPTER II. 

WHAT MRS. HOWELL TOLD THEM. 

" Mamma," cried Edith, '' I 've been trying 
to tell Marty about tenths and offerings, and 
why I give my money that way, but I can't do 
it so that she can understand. Wont you tell 
her, and show her some of the verses you 
showed me ?" 

"Good -morning, Marty," said Mrs. Howell 
pleasantly to the little girl who ran to kiss her. 
*' What is it you do n't understand ?" 

''I don't quite understand why the Jews 
gave tenths, nor why Edith has to do w^hat the 
Jews did." 

'' Well, bring your Bible, Edith, and give 
Marty mine, and I will show you some of the 
passages about giving. The first mention in 
the Bible of giving tithes to the Lord is when 
Jacob was at Bethel." 

" Was n't that when he slept on a stone pil- 
low, and had the beautiful dream of angels 
going up and down a ladder that reached to 
heaven?" Edith asked. 

'' Yes ; and you remember the Lord appeared 
to him in the dream, and promised to be with 



VxTIAT MRS. PIOWELL TOLD TIIEM. 15 

him wherever he went. And Jacob made a vow 
to the Lord, in which he said, 'And of all that 
thou shalt give me, I will surely give the tenth 
unto thee.' You will find it all in the twenty- 
eighth chapter of Genesis." 

" Yes," said Marty, after turning the leaves a 
few minutes. " Here it is : I never noticed it 
before." 

''Then," Mrs. Howell went on, "you know 
when God brought the children of Israel out of 
Egypt into the promised land, he gave them a 
great many laws, for they were just like chil- 
dren, and had to be told exactly what to do on 
every, occasion. Among other things he told 
them how to give. Edith, find the eighteenth 
chapter of Numbers and the twenty-first verse." 

Edith found the place and read, "And be- 
hold, I have given the children of Levi all the 
tenth in Israel for an inheritance, for the service 
which they serve, even the service of the taber- 
nacle of the congregation." 

" Why should the children of Levi have it ?" 
asked Marty. 

" Because the tribe of Levi was set apart for 
the service of God in the tabernacle, and after- 
ward the temple, and had no ' inheritance ' of 
land to till and pasture flocks upon like the 
other tribes ; so the rest of the nation was in- 
structed to provide for them. So you see these 



1 6 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

tithes were for what we should call the support 
of the gospel ; and Levi was the ministering 
tribe." 

Then Mrs. Howell showed the children pas- 
sages in Second Chronicles and Nehemiah where 
bringing tithes is spoken of, and in Malachi 
where the people are rebuked for not bringing 
them. Then she bade them turn to places in 
the Gospels of Matthew and Luke where our 
Saviour commends the giving of tithes, though 
he says that there are " weightier matters of the 
law, judgment, mercy, and faith." 

'' But tithes were not all the Israelites gave," 
Mrs. Howell resumed, after the little girls had 
read the verses. *' They gave in many other 
ways. Let me take that Bible a moment, Marty. 
Here in Deuteronomy, twelfth chapter and sixth 
verse, you see that many things are mentioned 
besides tithes — vows and free-will-offerings and 
the firstlings of the herds and of the flocks. 
Then at their feast times, three times in the 
year, they were told, in the sixteenth chapter of 
the same book, the sixteenth and seventeenth 
verses, that every man was to give as he was 
able." 

" Seems to me they must have been giving 
all the time," observed Marty. 

'' Yes, it has been estimated that a truly de- 
vout Jew gave away about a third of his income. 



WHAT MRS. HOWELL TOLD THEM. 1 7 

That is more than three-tenths, you know. Giv- 
ing freely to the Lord's service and to the poor 
was part of a Jew's religion." 

'' That 's what Edith says," Marty remarked. 
" 'T is n't part of ours, is it?" 

" Oh, yes it is," said Mrs. Howell, smiling a 
little ; " though perhaps not as much as it should 
be. All through the Bible we are taught the 
duty of giving, and though, of course, those par- 
ticular directions in the Old Testament were 
intended especially for the Jews, we may learn 
from them that the best way of giving is to give 
systematically." 

" What do you mean by systematically ?" 
asked Marty. 

'' I mean not giving just Avhen we happen 
to feel particularly interested in some object, 
or when we don't want the money for some- 
thing else, but having some plan about it and 
giving regularly, intelligently, and, above all, 
prayerfully." 

"Tell Marty the New Testament plan for 
giving, mamma," Edith requested. 

" St. Paul tells the Corinthians in the six- 
teenth chapter and second verse of the first 
epistle: 'Upon the first day of the week let 
every one of you lay by him in store, as God 
hath prospered him.' You see that is somewhat 
different from tenths. No particular portion is 

A Missionary Twig. O 



1 8 A MISSIONARY T\YIG. 

mentioned, but we are to regularly set aside for 
religious purposes as much as we can afford, and 
the amount is to be increased as our means in- 
crease." 

^'Why doesn't Edith do that way?" Marty 
inquired. 

'* When she is older and better able to judge 
how much she ought to give, she may adopt that 
plan. But it is simpler and easier just to give a 
tenth, and it is w^ell for little people who are 
learning to have a plain and easy rule to go by." 

" And why does Edith give her tenths to 
foreign missionary work instead of to something 
else?" asked Marty. 

This led to a long talk about the duty of 
obeying Christ's last command to carry the gos- 
pel to all nations; and Mrs. Howell explained 
how missionary societies are trying to obey this 
command, and how important it is that Chris- 
tians should be very prompt and regular with 
their contributions, so that the good work may 
not be hindered. 

''You see," said Mrs. Howell, ''in order to 
send the gospel to these far-away people, we 
must send missionaries to them. There is no 
other way, while there are a good many ways in 
which even children may help people near by. 
For instance, they can persuade other children 
to go to church and Sunday-school. And then 



WHAT MRS. HOWELL TOLD THEM. 1 9 

they can be kind to the poor, and can help them 
in other ways beside giving money to them. 
Edith mends her old toys for poor children. 
She keeps her bright cards and picture books 
as nice as possible, and when done with them 
carries them to the Children's Hospital or to 
the Almshouse ; and she is very careful of her 
clothes, so that when she has outgrown them 
they will do for poor little girls. There are 
children now down town going to Sunday-school 
in her clothes. So you see that even if your 
money goes to the missionary work, you need 
not neglect other ways of doing good." 

" I think it *s grand !" said Marty with long- 
drawn breath. '' I 've a great mind to begin 
trying to do somebody some good, and not keep 
everything myself. I have a dime every week 
to do what I please with, and sometimes I get 
other money besides." 

'' I am sure you would find a great deal of 
satisfaction in helping others," said Mrs. Howell. 

" Mrs. Howell," asked Marty, after studying 
the verse in First Corinthians for some time, 
" what does it mean about laying by in store the 
first day of the week?" 

"The first day of the week is the Sabbath, 
and that is a fitting time to consider how God 
has prospered you and to lay aside your offer- 
ing." 



20 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

'' I think if I had a box and saved tenths I 'd 
like to do that way," said Marty. '^I suppose 
papa could give me my dime just as well Satur- 
day as Monday. I do believe I 'd like to belong 
to that band and give some money to send 
Bibles and teachers to the heathen." 

"Oh! do, do join our mission-band," urged 
Edith. ''You '11 like it ever so much," and she 
went on so enthusiastically telling how delight- 
ful it was, that Marty at once decided, if her 
mamma approved, she would ''join" at the very 
next meeting. Of course she could not have 
been so constantly with Edith without already 
having heard much about the band, but she had 
never been so interested in it as this morning, 
and was now very anxious to go to the meeting 
the coming Saturday. 

" I '11 run right home and ask mamma," she 
said. 



MARTY GETS STARTED. 21 

CHAPTER III. 

MARTY GETS STARTED. 

"O MAMMx\!" cried Marty, bursting into her 
mother's room, ''may I have — " 

Then she stopped suddenly, for she saw her 
mother was sitting in the rocking-chair with 
Freddie in her arms, evidently trying to put him 
to sleep. He looked around when ^Marty came 
in so noisily, and Mrs. Ashford said, in a vexed 
tone, 

'* O Marty ! why do you rush in that way ? I 
have been trying for half an hour to put Freddie 
to sleep, and have just got him to lay his head 
down." 

'' Now I will lay my head up," Freddie an- 
nounced, and sat up with his eyes as wide 
open as if he never meant to go to sleep in his 
life. 

'' I 'm so sorry, mamma," said Marty, " but 
I didn't know he'd be going to sleep at this 
time." 

''It is sooner than usual, but he seemed so 
sleepy and was so fretful, I thought I would just 
give him his dinner early, and put him to sleep 
before our lunch." 



22 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

" Maybe he will lie on the bed with me, and 
go to sleep that way, as he did the other day," 
suggested INIarty, who was always very ready ^to 
-make amends for any mischief she had caused. 
" Wont Freddie come and lie down beside sis- 
ter?" 

" No, no, no !" said Freddie, shaking his curly 
head and pushing ^larty away with his foot. 

" I '11 tell you a pretty story," said Marty 
coaxingly. 

*' No, no," said the little boy. 

" Pretty story about the three bears." 

At this mention of his favorite story Freddie 
began to relent, and presently stretched out his 
arms to Marty. Mrs. Ashford put him on the 
bed, and he cuddled up to Marty while she told 
him the thrilling story of the Great Huge Bear, 
the Middle-sized Bear, and the Little Small Wee 
Bear; but long before she came to the place 
where little Silver Hair was found, Freddie was 
fast asleep. 

"What were you going to ask me, Marty?" 
inquired her mamma, when they were seated 
at lunch. 

''Oh, yes!" said Marty, in her excitement 
laying down her fork and twisting her napkin. 
'' I was going to ask you if I might have a box to 
put tenths in, and if I mayn't belong to the 
mission-band." 



MARTY GETS STARTED. 23 

*' I thought you didn't want to belong to the 
band." 

"Well, I didn't before, but I do now. I 
didn't know till this morninQ^ how nice it is. 
Mrs. Howell and Edith have been telling me all 
about giving money systematically, and showing 
me verses in the Bible ; and so I thought I 'd like 
to give some of my money, and go with Edith to 
the -mission meeting next Saturday, if you will 
let me." 

" Of course you may go if you wish." 

'' And may I have a box to put my money 
in?" 

" Yes." 

"Where shall I get it?" 

" I '11 give you one," said Mrs. Ashford, laugh- 
ing. " Will that cardinal and gilt one of mine 
be suitable for the purpose ?" 

" Will you give me that beauty ? Thank you 
ever so much," and Marty flew around the table 
to kiss her mother. 

When they went up stairs Mrs. Ashford got 
out the pretty box, and, at Marty's desire, wrote 
on the bottom of it, " jMartha Ashford," and the 
date. Marty, after excessively admiring and 
rejoicing over it, made a place for it in the 
corner of one of her drawers. Then she con- 
sulted her mother how to begin with the tenths. 

"I haven't any of this week's money left," 



24 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

she said — in fact she seldom had any of her 
weekly allowance over — '' but I have twenty- 
seven cents of my Christmas money yet. Had I 
better take a tenth of that, or wait and begin 
with my next ten cents?" 

Her mother thought it would be best, per- 
haps, to keep the twenty-seven cents for ''emer- 
gencies," and begin the tenths with the next 
week's money. 

'' But one penny will be very little to take to 
the meeting," said IMarty. " How would it do 
to put in two more as a thank-offering for some- 
thing or other?" 

" That is a very good idea." 

In the evening her father came in for his 
share of the requests. 

"Papa," she asked, ''would you just as soon 
give me my ten cents this evening as I^Ion- 
day?" 

"Certainly," he replied, taking a dime out of 
his pocket. " What 's going on this evening?" 

"Oh, nothing 's going on, but I 've begun to 
have a box for missionary money — that lovely 
cardinal one of mamma's with gilt spots on it — 
and I 'm going to put tenths and offerings in it 
and take them to the mission-band to help send 
missionaries to the heathen." 

" Well, that 's good. But what are you going 
to do about candy and such things?" 



■MARTY GETS STARTED. 25 

''Oh, I don't put all my money in the box; 
just some of it. I 'm going to learn to give — 
what was it I told you mamma?" 

" Systematically ?" 

'' Yes, ma'am, that 's it. You know, papa, that 
means giving just so much of your money and 
giving it at a certain time and never forgetting 
to give it. That 's the reason I wanted my ten 
cents now, so that I can put some of it in the 
box to-morrow morning. And, O papa! would 
it trouble you to give it to me all in pennies?" 

*' Not at all," said her father gravely, and he 
counted out ten pennies, taking back the dime. 
" Now how much of that goes in the cardinal 
box?" 

" One penny for tenths and two as a thank- 
offering, because I 'm thankful that I 've got 
started. So to-morrow morning three pennies 
will rattle into the box." 

" Why to-morrow ?" 
• " Because it 's the first day of the week. 
That 's the New Testament plan, ' lay by in store 
on the first day of the week.' " 

Then she climbed on her father's knee and 
told him all her day's experience. He approved 
of her plans and said he hoped she would be 
able to carry them out. 

** I think," he said, '' it is a very good thing for 
small folks to learn to spend their money wisely, 



26 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

and a better thing to learn to be willing to share 
the good they have with those not so well off. 
But you will have to watch yourself very care- 
fully, for it wont be so easy to do all this when 
the novelty wears off as it is now." 

*' Oh ! I 'm always going to do this way," said 
Marty very determinedly, ''all my life." 

She always entered with heart and soul into 
whatever interested her, and all that week she 
could hardly think of anything but the mission- 
band and the money she was saving for it. By 
Wednesday she had dropped two more pennies 
into the box — a free-will-offering she told her 
mother — and did not spend a cent for anything, 
though one of her dolls was really suffering for 
a' pink sash. 

She was a great deal of the time with Edith, 
who gave her the most glowing accounts of 
w^hat they did at the band — how they had recita- 
tions and dialogues and items, how they made 
aprons and kettle-holders and sold them, and 
how Miss Agnes read most interesting mission- 
ary stories to them while they sewed. She also 
told of a beautiful letter the secretary, Mary 
Cresswell, had written to the lady missionary in 
the school in Lahore, India, which the Twigs 
supported, and how they were anxiously looking 
for a reply. Miss Agnes said they must not 
expect a reply very soon, for missionaries were 



MARTY GETS STARTED. 2/ 

very busy people and had not mucli time for 
letter-writing. But the girls thought that Mrs. 

C , the missionary, would be so pleased with 

Mary's letter she would certainly make time to 
write, at least a tiny answer. 

''Does the band support a whole school?" 
Marty inquired in surprise. " It must take a lot 
of money." 

'' What we do is to pay the teacher s salary, 
and that s only about twenty or twenty-five dol- 
lars a year," Edith replied. ''You see it's this 
kind of a school: the missionary ladies rent a 
little room for a school and hire a native teacher, 
soniebody perhaps who attends one of the mis- 
sion churches." 

" But how can any one afford to teach for so 
little money?" 

" Oh, that 's a good deal for them, for the 
natives of those countries can live on very little, 
Miss Agnes says. So the missionaries some- 
times have a good many of these schools in 
different parts of the city, and they visit each 
one every two or three days to see how the 
children are getting on and to give them reli- 
gious instruction. Miss Agnes says in that way 
the missionaries can do something for a great 
many children, and the more money we bands 
send to pay teachers the more of these little 
schools there may be." 



28 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

Marty could hardly wait for Saturday to 
come. She asked her mother to select a verse 
for her to say at the meeting. 

'' For Edith says they all repeat verses when 
their names are called." 

Her mother chose this one for her: "The 
silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the 
Lord of hosts." 



WHOLES INSTEAD OF TENTHS. 29 



CHAPTER IV. 

WHOLES INSTEAD OF TENTHS. 

When Marty came home from the meeting 
the next Saturday evening, and entered the 
sitting-room in her usual whirlwind style, she 
found her father there having a romp with 
Freddie. 

"Why, here is little sister! Well, missy, 
where have you been?" he asked. 

/'Why, papa!" exclaimed Marty reproach- 
fully. "To the mission meeting, of course. I 
told you this morning I was going." 

" So you did ; and you have told me every 
morning this week that this was the important 
day. I don't know how I came to forget it. 
Well, how did you like the meeting?" 

" Oh, ever so much ! I heard a great many 
sad things." 

"That's a new reason for liking a thing," 
said her father. 

" I mean," replied Marty, " I liked it because 
it was so nice and interesting, but I did hear 
some sad things. Do n't you think it 's sad to 
hear of a little school in one of those big, bad 
Chinese cities, where the children were begin- 



30 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

ning to learn about Jesus, being broken up be- 
cause the folks in this country don't send 
money enough to pay a teacher ? And it would 
only take a little money, too." 

" That is certainly very sad." 

" Yes ; and Miss Agnes told us of other 
schools that have to send the girls and boys 
away because there is n't possibly room for 
them, and there is no money to make the build- 
ings larger. I asked her why the big society in 
this country — the one where the money from all 
the bands is sent, you know^ — did n't just take 
hold and build plenty of schools, so that all the 
heathen children might be taught ; and she said 
that the Board — that 's the big society — has no 
money to send but what the churches and 
Sunday-schools give them, and lately they 
haven't been giving enough to build all the 
schools that are wanted. Isn't it awful !" 

''A very sad state of affairs," said Mr. Ash- 
ford, but he could hardly help smiling a little 
at Marty's profound indignation. 

'' I should think the people in this country 
couldn't sit still and see things going on in 
such a way," she said. '' Why, do 3^ou know, 
j\Iiss Agnes says there are places where the 
poor people are, asking for missionaries, and 
there are none to send, because there 's not 
money enough to support them. I should think 



WHOLES INSTEAD OF TENTHS. 3 1 

that people would just go and take all their 
money out of the banks and send it to the 
Board. Then there would be so much money 
pouring in that the Board would have to sit up 
nights to count it." 

'' No, no ; that would n't do," said her father. 
'' Little girls don't understand these matters." 

'' Well, but, papa," she said, coming close to 
him, dragging her coat after her by one sleeve, 
" do n't you think if ever}'body were to give as 
the Lord has prospered them, there would be 
nearly enough money to do the right thing by 
the heathen ?" 

'' Yes, there 's something in that," answered 
Mr. Ashford, looking with a queer kind of a 
smile at his wife, over Marty's head. " But you 
can't compel every one to do what is right. All 
you can do is to attend to your own contribu- 
tions." 

" Well," said Marty, half crying in her ear- 
nestness, '' I started out to give tenths ; but as 
long as there are so many heathen, and so few 
missionaries, I 'm going to give halves or wholes. 
I can't stand tenths." 

And she marched off and put evei*y cent she 
had in the red box. When she got her weekly 
allowance, that also went in. Her mother sug- 
gested that she would better not give all her 
money away at once. 



32 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

'' I think," she said, " it would be much bet- 
ter to do as you started to do, and not give in 
that impulsive way." 

But Marty was sure she should not regret it, 
and declared she was going to give every bit 
of money she ever should have to send mission- 
aries to the heathen. She was very full of 
ardor for about two days, though on Monday 
something occurred that made her feel ver)' 
bad. She was playing wdth Freddie in the 
morning, and when schooltime came he began 
to whimper, and holding her dress, pleaded, 

" Do n't go, Marty ; play wis me." 

She was very fond of her little brother, and 
proud that he seemed to think more of her than 
he did of any one else, so she was usually quite 
gentle with him. She now petted him and 
coaxed him to let her go, saying when she came 
home she would bring him a pretty little sponge 
cake. She often brought these tasty little cakes 
to Freddie, and he considered them a great 
treat. The prospect of one quite satisfied him, 
and after many last kisses he let her go peace- 
ably. 

On the way home from school she stopped 
at the bakery, and it was not until the cake was 
selected and wrapped up that she remembered 
she had no money. It was all in her missionary 
box. 



WHOLES INSTEAD OF TENTHS. 33 

" Oh ! I can't take it after all," she said re- 
gretfully. " I forgot I have no money." 

" That makes no difference at all," said the 
kindly German woman, who knew Marty, as 
Mrs. Ashford generally dealt at the shop : " you 
take it all the same, and bring the penny to- 
morrow — any day." 

*' No, thank you, mamma would n't like me 
to do that," answered Marty, hastening out to 
hide her tears. She was so sorry for Freddie's 
disappointment ; and disappointed he was, for 
he had a good memory and immediately asked 
for his cake. Then there was a great crying 
scene, for Marty cried as heartily as he did, and 
their mamma had to comfort them both. 

*' I think, mamma," said Marty, when Fred- 
die had condescended to eat a piece of another 
kind of cake and quiet was restored, '' I think, 
after all, I '11 not put cT'crj^ cent of my money in 
the box, but will keep a little to buy things for 
dear little Freddie — and you," giving her mo- 
ther a squeeze. 

''That will be best," said Mrs. Ashford. ''I 
know you enjoy bringing us things some- 
times." 

This was quite true. ]\larty was very gen- 
erous, and nothing pleased her more than to 
bring home some modest dainty, such as her 
small purse would buy, and share it with every- 

A Missionary Twig. -J 



34 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

body in the house, not forgetting Katie in the 
kitchen. 

But her penniless condition brought her a 
harder time yet. The next day in school a 
sudden recollection flashed upon her that nearly 
took her breath away. She could hardly wait 
until school was dismissed to race home to her 
mother, to whom she managed to gasp, 

" Oh, mamma ! next Friday is Cousin Alice's 
birthday!" 

"Is it?" said Mrs. Ashford calmly. ''What 
then?" 

"Why, you know that letter-rack of silver 
cardboard that I have been making for her 
birthday, and counted so on giving her, isn't 
finished." 

"It is all ready but the ribbon, isn't it? It 
wont take long to finish. I will make the bows 
for you." 

"But the ribbon isn't bought yet, and I 
haven't got a cent!" exclaimed Marty despair- 
ingly. 

There were tv/o very strict rules in connec- 
tion with the money Marty received each week 
One was she was never to ask for it in advance, 
and the other that she was not to borrow from 
any one, expecting to pay when she got her 
dime. If she spent all her money the first of 
the week, she had to do without things, no mat- 



WHOLES INSTEAD OF TENTHS. 35 

ter how badly she wanted them, till the next 
allowance came in. This was to teach her 
foresight and carefulness, her father said. Now 
she had no money and no expectation of any 
until Saturday, when the birthday would be 
over. Of course there was all the money in the 
red box, but she did not dream of touching that. 
It was just as much missionary money as if it 
was already in the hands of the Board that Miss 
Agnes. talked about. 

''If I had any ribbon that would suit," said 
Mrs. Ashford, '' I would give it to you ; but I 
haven't. Besides, for a present it would be 
better to have new ribbon. How much would 
it cost ?" 

" Rosa Stevenson paid eight cents a yard for 
hers, and it takes a yard and a half — narrow rib- 
bon, you know." 

*' Then you will want twelve cents. I am 
sorry I cannot lend you the money, but it is 
against the rule, you know." 

''Yes, ma'am, I know," Marty replied vSor- 
rowfully. 

She was sadly disappointed, as she had been 
looking forward for several weeks to the time 
when she should have the pleasure of present- 
ing the nicely-made letter-rack to her cousin. 
She did not grudge the money she had devoted 
to missions ; she would like to have given much 



36 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

more if she could ; but she began to see that 
Edith's way of giving according to system was 
the best. She was still very much interested 
in the heathen, but they seemed a little farther 
off than on Saturday, while Cousin Alice and 
the letter -rack now absorbed most of her 
thoughts. She stood dolefully gazing out the 
window, not paying any attention to Freddie's 
invitation to come and play cable cars. 

"Well, cheer up!" said her mother. ''We 
will find some way out of the difficulty. You 
try to think of some plan to get twelve cents, 
and so will I. Between us we ought to devise 
something." 

Marty brightened up instantly and looked 
eagerly at her mother, sure that relief was com- 
ing immediately. '' What is your plan, mam- 
ma?" she asked. 

''Oh ! I didn't say I had one yet," said Mrs. 
Ashford, laughing. " You must give me time 
to think ; and you must think yourself." 

That was all she would say then, and Marty 
spent a very restless afternoon and evening 
trying to think of some way to earn or save 
that money, but could think of nothing that 
would bring it in time for Friday. At bedtime 
her mother inquired, " Have you got a plan yet ?" 

" No, indeed. I can't think of a thing," an- 
swered Marty, nearly as doleful as ever. 



\VHOLES INSTEAD OF TENTHS. 



57 



" How do you like this plan ?" said Mrs. Asli- 
ford. '' I have some rags up in the storeroom 
that I want picked over, the white separated 
from the colored, and if you will do it to-morrow 
afternoon, I will give you fifteen cents." 

" Oh, 1 11 do it ! I '11 do it !" cried Marty in 
deliofht, kissinof her mother. '' You 're the best 
mamma that ever was !" 

" It is not pleasant work, and will probably 
take all your playtime," cautioned her mother. 

''Oh! I don't mind that," said Marty. 

So, although the next afternoon was remark- 
ably pleasant, and it would have been delightful 
to be playing with her sled in the snow-heaped 
little park near by, where the other girls were, 
she very cheerfully spent it in the dull store- 
room with an old calico wrapper over her dress, 
sorting rags. There were a good many to do — • 
though she candidly said she did n't think there 
was more than fifteen cents' worth — and she got 
pretty tired. Katie offered to help, but Marty 
heroically refused, and earned her money fairly. 

The letter-rack was completed in good time, 
and presented. Cousin Alice said it was the 
very prettiest of all her gifts, besides being ex- 
tremely useful. 

" Mamma," said Marty that evening, '' I be- 
lieve after all I '11 go back to Edith's plan of 
giving 'tenths' and 'offerings' to missions." 



38 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

'' I think that would be the better way," said 
her mother. 

*' Not that I 'm tired of the heathen or the 
mission-band, or of giving, you know, but just 
because — " • 

" Yes, I understand," said her mother, as she 
hesitated ; " you are just as much interested in 
the matter as ever, but you now see that there 
are more ways than one of doing good with 
money, and that it is better to give systemati- 
cally, as Mrs. Howell says. Then you know 
what you are doing, and I dare say, taking it all 
in all, you w^ill give more that way than by giv- 
ing a good deal one time and nothing at all 
another." 

'* Oh ! I '11 never come to the time w^hen I 
wont give anything," ^larty declared emphati- 
cally. 

And she then truly believed she never 
should. 



THE EBONY CHAIR. 39 



CHAPTER V. 

THE EBONY CHAIR. 

For a few weeks everything went smoothly. 
Marty attended the meetings of the band, in 
which she took great interest, and put two or 
three pennies in her box every Sunday morning. 
But there came a time when she began to find it 
hard to give even that much. There seemed to 
be so many little things she wanted, and it was 
just, the season of the year when she had very 
few presents of money. She generally got some 
on her birthday, in August, and again at Christ- 
mas ; but as she could not keep money very well, 
that was soon spent, and during the latter part 
of the winter she was very poor. Once or twice 
nothing went in the box but the strict tenth, and 
once she had a hard struggle with herself before 
even that went in ; in fact, 'she had a very bad 
time altogether. It was all owing to a tiny 
chair. 

" O girls !" exclaimed Hattie Green, one day 
at recess, '* have you seen those lovely chairs in 
Harrison's window?" 

'' What chairs?" inquired the girls. 

" Oh, such lovely little dolls' chairs ! Carved, 



40 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

you know, and with beautiful red cushions. I 
came by there this morning, and that 's the 
reason I was late at school, I stopped so long 
to look at those cunning chairs." 

*' Let's all go home that way," suggested 
Marty, '' and then we can see them." 

''All right," said Hattie. 

So after school quite a crowd went around 
by Harrison's toy-store to see the wonderful 
chairs. 

There they were, rather small, to be sure, but 
ebony — at least they looked like ebony — and 
crimson satin. The girls were in raptures with 
them. 

''They are beauties!" cried Edith. 

" How I should love to have one !" said 
Marty. 

" I wonder how much they are," said Rosa 
Stevenson. 

" You go in and ask, Rosa," said Edith. 

"Yes, do, do," urged the others. 

Rosa went, and came back with the informa- 
tion that they were twelve cents apiece. 

"Well, that isn't so much," said Edith. " I 
think I can afford to get one. I '11 see when I 
go home." 

" I know I have enough money to buy one," 
said Rosa, "but I never buy anything without 
asking mamma about it first." 



THE EDOXV CHAIR. 4I 

" She '11 let you get it," said Edith. 

"Oh, you girls always have some money 
saved up, and I never have," sighed Marty. 
*' And I do want one of those chairs so badly." 

" So do I," said Hattie, "and I haven't any 
money either, but I 'm going to tease mamma 
night and day till she gives me twelve cents." 

" It 's no use to tease my mamma," said Mar- 
ty. " If she wont let me do a thing, she wont, 
and that 's the end of it. But of course I '11 tell 
her about the chairs, and see what she says. 
Maybe she '11 let me have one." 

As soon as she reached home Marty gave her 
mother a glowing description of the chairs, wind- 
ing up with, 

" And, O mamma ! I do want one awfully." 

" But you have so many playthings already, 
Marty," objected her mother. " Just look at 
those closet shelves ! Besides, you got a com- 
plete set of dolls' furniture Christmas." 

" Oh, I know I do n't m^ed another chair at all, 
but those red ones are so cunning, and one 
would look so well mixed in among my blue 
ones. I should /ove to have one." 

" I am sorry your mind is so set on it, said 
Mrs. Ashford, " for I dislike to have you disap- 
pointed, but when you have so many playthings, 
I really do n't feel like giving you money, even 
if it is only a trifle." 



42 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

" May I buy a chair if I have money enough 
of my own ?" Marty asked. 

'' Oh, yes — if you wish to spend your money 
that way ; but I would rather save it for some- 
thing else if I were you." 

Marty had no very clear idea where " money 
of her own " was to come from just at that time^ 
but thought it possible the necessary amount 
might appear before the chairs were all sold. 

The next morning Rosa and Edith came to 
school with money to buy chairs, and at recess 
all their special friends went with them to Har- 
rison's to make the purchase. When Marty had 
a nearer view of the chairs and handled them, 
she was more anxious than ever to possess one. 
This anxiety increased as the days passed and 
the chairs gradually disappeared. 

Nobody gave her any money and her mother 
did not offer her any more '' paid " work. She 
was very, very sorry that she had spent all of 
her allowance on Monday morning — at least all 
but two cents and the one in the red box. That, 
of course, she took with her to the meeting Sat- 
urday afternoon. 

Saturday evening she received her next 
week's supply, and that, with the two cents she 
had over, was exactly enough to get the longed- 
for toy. But one cent was tenths. 

*' That just spoils the whole thing," she said 



THE EBONY CHAIR. 43 

to herself. '* I miglit as well have none at all as 
only eleven cents." 

Then she wondered if it would not do to bor- 
row that tenth. She had not thought of taking 
out any of the money when she was in such 
straits about Cousin Alice's ribbon, but this 
seemed different. It was only one penny, and 
she was sure of being able to replace it. 

But borrowing was against the rule, and it 
must be especially wrong to borrow missionary 
money. She felt ashamed, and her cheeks 
burned when the thought came to her. 

" I s'pose I '11 have to give up the chair," she 
sighed ; " at least unless I get a little more 
money somehow. I wish papa wasn't so strict 
about borrowing. A penny would n't be much 
to borrow." 

Sunday morning she took out her money and 
counted it over again very carefully. Yes, there 
was exactly twelve cents. Then she slowly took 
up one cent to drop in the box. As she did 
so the temptation to borrow it came again. 

'' No, I wont do that," she said resolutely, but 
after looking at the penny for a while, concluded 
not to put it in the box until after she came from 
Sunday-school. 

After Sunday-school she tried it again, but 
still hesitated. 

" I '11 wait till bedtime," she thought. 



44 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

By bedtime she had decided not to put it in 
at all. 

" I b'lieve I '11 borrow it. It wont do any 
harm to let the box go empty for one week. I '11 
get the chair to-morrow, and make the tenth all 
right next Sunday." 

vSo she got into bed and covered herself up, 
but she could not go to sleep. She tossed and 
tumbled for what seemed to her a long time. 
*'It's all because that penny isn't in the box," 
she thought. Finally she could stand it no 
longer. She got up, and feeling around in the 
drawer, found the penny and put it in the box. 
Then she went to bed, and was soon asleep. 

Having decided she could not have what she 
so ardently desired, Marty should have kept out 
of the way of temptation, but every day she went 
to look at the chairs, and seeing them, she 
continued to want one. By Thursday they were 
all gone but two, and Hattie triumphantly an- 
nounced that at last her mamma had given her 
money to buy one. Then Marty felt that she 
7;ius^ have the other. 

When she had her wraps on that afternoon 
ready to go out to play, she went to the mission- 
ary box, and, with hands trembling in her 
excitement, took out the solitary penny. Then 
without stopping to think she ran down stairs. 
Just as she was opening the street-door she 



THE EBONY CHAIR. 45 

repented, and after meditating a while in the 
vestibule, standing first on one foot and then on 
the other, she slowly retraced her steps and put 
the penny back. 

" Now it 's safe," she said. " I '11 just dash 
out without it, and of course when I have n't got 
it, I can't spend it." 

She dashed about half way, when all at once 
the vision of the lovely chair rose up before her, 
and the desire to possess it was greater than 
ever. She stopped again to think, and the result 
was, she returned and got the penny — it was not 
quite so hard to take it out the second time as it 
was the first — and started for the street once 
more. 

Perhaps she might have repented and gone 
back again, had not her mother, who was enter- 
taining some ladies in the parlor, called to her, 
*' Marty, do n't race up and down stairs so," and 
then Marty went out with the penny in her 
hand. 



4(3 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE EMPTY BOX. 



So THE chair was bought and Marty tried to 
think she was perfectly satisfied, but it was 
strange how little she cared for it after all. She 
showed her purchase to her mother, who said it 
was quite pretty, but not very substantial ; that 
she feared it would not last long. 

Marty put it in her dolls' house and played 
with it, trying hard to enjoy it, but her con- 
science was so ill at ease that she soon began to 
hate the sight of the chair, and by Friday even- 
ing she had pushed it away back on the shelf 
behind everything. The sight of the red box, 
too, was more than she could stand, it seemed 
to look so reproachfully at her; even after she 
had laid one of her white aprons over it she dis- 
liked to open the drawer. 

There was a special meeting of the band that 
vSaturday, as they were getting ready for their 
anniversary. No contributions were expected, 
so that it did not matter about Marty having no 
money ; but she was feeling so low-spirited and 
ashamed that she simply could not go among 
the others nor take part in missionary exercises. 



THE EMPTY BOX, 47 

"Are you going for Edith this afternoon or 
is she coming for you?" inquired Mrs. Ashford. 

" I 'm not going to the meeting," replied 
Marty in a low voice. '' I told Edith I was n't 
going." 

"Not going!" exclaimed Mrs. Ashford in 
surprise. " Why, you are not tired of it already, 
are you ?" 

"No, ma'am," ISIarty answered, "but I don't 
want to go to-day." 

Mrs. Ashford thought perhaps Marty and 
Edith had had a little falling out, though it 
must be said they very seldom quarrelled; or 
that Marty was beginning to tire a little of her 
new enterprise, for she was rather in the habit 
of taking things up with great energy and soon 
becoming weary of them. Mrs. Ashford had 
not expected her missionary enthusiasm to last 
very long; and as she herself was not at that 
time much interested in such matters, she was 
not prepared to keep up Marty's zeal, but was 
inclined to allow her to go on with the work or 
give it up, just as she chose, as she did in mat- 
ters of less importance. 

However, Mrs. Ashford knew that whatever 
the trouble was, it would all come out sooner or 
later, for Marty always told her everything. So 
she merely said, 

"Well, as it is so bleak to-day and you have a 



48 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

cold, perhaps it would be just as well for you not 
to go out." 

Marty, disinclined to play, took one of her 
*' Bessie Books" and sat down by the window. 
Though so cheerless out-doors, with the wind 
whistling among the leafless trees and blowing 
the dust about, that sitting-room was certainly 
very cosey and pleasant. 

Marty's "pretty mamma," as she often called 
her, in her becoming afternoon gown of soft, 
dark red stuff, sat in a low rocker in front of the 
bright fire busy with her embroidery and softly 
singing as she worked. Freddie, on the rug at 
her feet, played quietly with a string of buttons. 
The only sounds in the room were Mrs. Ash- 
ford's murmured song and an occasional chirp 
from the canary. But all at once this cheerful 
quietness was broken by loud sobbing. 

Poor Marty had been so unhappy the last 
two days, and now added to what she felt to be 
the meanness of appropriating that missionary 
penny, was the disappointment of not being at 
the meeting, for she was longing to be there, 
though not feeling fit to go. Besides, it was a 
great load on her mind that she had not told her 
mamma how she got the chair, nor what w^as the 
reason she did not want to go to the meeting. 
And now she could endure her wretchedness no 
longer. 



THE EMPTY BOX. 49 

^' What 's the matter, Marty?" exclaimed Mrs. 
Ashford, much startled. *' Are you ill ? Is your 
throat sore? Come here and tell me what ails 
you?" 

" Oh, mamma, I 'm very, very wicked," 
sobbed Marty, and nmning to her mother's 
arms she tried to tell her troubles, but cried so 
that she could not be understood. 

'' Never mind, never mind," said her mother 
soothingly. ''Wait until you can stop crying 
and then tell me all about it." 

Freddie was dreadfully distressed to see his 
sister in such a state and did all he could to 
comfort her, bringing her his horse-reins and a 
whole lapful of building-blocks, and was rather 
surprised that they did not have the desired 
effect. 

When ^Marty became quieter she told the 
whole story of the dolls' chair and the mission- 
ary penny. '' That 's the reason I did n't want 
to go to the meeting," she said. '' I do n't feel 
fit to 'sociate with good missionary children. 
I 'm so sorry and so ashamed. I wish I had let 
the penny stay in the box and the chair stay in 
the store," 

''We cannot undo what is done," said her 
mother gravely. " We can only make all possi- 
ble amends and try to do better in future. You 
can replace the penny this evening, and this 



50 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

lesson you have had may teach you to be more 
self-denying. You know you cannot spend all 
your money for trifles and yet have some to give 
away. If you want to give you must learn to do 
without some things. But, Marty, if it is going 
to be so difficult to devote some of your money 
to missions, you had better just give up the 
attempt and go back to your old way of doing." 

''Oh, no, no!" exclaimed Marty earnestly. 
'' Please let me try again. I know I '11 do better 
now, and I do want to help in missionary work." 

"Well," said Mrs. Ashford, ''just as you w4sh. 
I do n't like to see you beginning things and 
giving them up so soon, but at the same time I 
do n't think you need feel obliged to give to 
these things whether you want to or not." 

"Oh, but I do want to ever so much," Marty 
protested. 

She felt better after telling her mother all 
about the matter, and now was quite ready to 
brighten up and start afresh. The next morn- 
ing besides dropping in two pennies for tenths 
she put in another, which she said was a 
"sorry" offering, but did not know the Bible 
name for it. She would have liked to make 
amends by putting in the whole ten cents, but 
her mother would not allow it. 

" Things would soon be as bad as ever," were 
her warning words, "if that's the way you are 



THE EMPTY BOX. 5 1 

going to do. The next thing you will want to 
take some of it out, as you did the penny for the 
chair." 

" No, no, mamma ! I do n't b'lieve I ever cou/d 
be so mean again," Marty declared. 

'* I do n't believe either that you w^ould do it 
again. But you will certainly save yourself a 
great deal of worry, and wdll be likely to do 
more good in the work you have begun, by fol- 
lowing Mrs. Howell's advice of having a plan of 
giving and keeping to it." 

'' Well, I 'm going to try that way in real 
earnest now%" said Marty ; '' but I wish it was as 
easy for me to be steady about things as it is 
for Edith. She never seems to get into trouble 
over her tenths." 

A few days after this, when she was spending 
the afternoon with Edith, Marty told Mrs. How. 
ell w^hat a time she had had, and added, 

"Doesn't it seem strange that I can't give 
my money regularly ?" 

''Perhaps," suggested Mrs. Howell, ''you 
have not asked God to help you in your new 
enterprise." 

"Why, no, I haven't," replied Marty. "I 
never thought of it." 

" My dear child, we are nothing in our own 
strength. We should always ask God to help 
us in what we attempt, and ask for his bless- 



52 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

ing. Unless he blesses our work, it cannot pros- 
per." 

"But I don't know how to ask him," said 
Marty, speaking softly. "The prayers I say 
every night are 'Our Father,* and 'Now I lay 
me,' and there 's nothing in them about mission 
work. I should have to say another prayer, 
should n't I?" 

"If you more fully understood the Lord's 
Prayer, you would know that exactly what you 
want is included in it. But why cannot you ask 
for what you desire in your own words ? Just go 
to God as trustingly as you would to your mo- 
ther, w^hen you want something you know she 
will let you have, if it is good for you to have it. 
And that would be really praying, for, Marty, 
don't you know there's a great difference be- 
tween saying prayers and praying? You may 
say a dozen prayers and not pray at all." 

"Don't I pray when I kneel beside the bed 
and say those two prayers?" ^ 

" You do if you make the petitions your own, 
and really desire what you ask for, and if you 
ask in the right spirit. But if you just say the 
words over without thinking what you are say- 
ing, or w^hom you are speaking to, it is not 
praying at all. It is mocking God." 

"I 'm sure I wouldn't do that," said Marty, 
looking frightened. 



THE EMPTY BOX. 53 

'' I know you would not wilfully, my dear, 
but I just want to show you that saying over 
certain words is not praying. We don't realize 
what a blessed privilege it is to pray. God's ear 
is open night and day to any of us, even the 
smallest child. He is as ready to hear anything 
you may have to say as he is to hear Dr. Edgar 
when he gets up in his pulpit and prays." 

'' Then it would n't be Avrong to ask God to 
help me give missionary money regularly, would 
it?" 

''It would be very right." 

That night when Marty knelt beside her bed 
she really prayed. She felt that God was listen- 
ing to her, and when she came to the words, 
" Now I lay me down to sleep," she realized that 
she was committing herself to his care, and was 
sure that in that care she was safe. After her 
usual prayers she paused a moment and then 
added, '' And, O Lord, please help me to be 
steady in giving missionary money." 



54 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

CHAPTER VII. 

HOW MISSIONS HELPED THE HOME FOLKS. 

The mission work that Marty had entered 
upon was teaching her to pray. 

She really wished to be a mission worker in 
her small way and she tried hard to be faithful, 
but owing to her forgetfulness or impatience 
or selfishness, things sometimes went wrong. 
Once or twice she forgot to learn a verse to say 
at the meeting, and was much mortified. Once 
she got very impatient with a piece of sewing 
and spoiled it, and then was angry because some 
of the girls laughed at her. And she still found 
it hard to give her money regularly ; some 
weeks she wanted it so much for something 
else. 

But all these little trials she carried to God 
and was helped. This led to the habit of bring- 
ing all her little troubles to him. 

One day Miss Agnes remarked that we do n't 
put enough thanks in our prayers. We ask that 
such and such things may be done, but we do n't 
thank God half enough for what he has done 
and is constantly doing for us. We come to 
him with all the miseries of our lives, but do n't 



HOW MISSIONS HELPED THE HOME FOLKS. 55 

tell him about the happy and joyous things. 
Afterward Marty put more thanks in her pray- 
ers, and she told Miss Agnes that it was aston- 
ishing how many thankful things there were 
to say. 

Marty also used her Bible a great deal more 
after she joined the band than before. 

Besides the verse they were expected to 
repeat at roll-call, Miss Agnes sometimes asked 
them to bring all the texts they could find bear- 
ing upon a certain subject. The golden text 
for Sunday-school might be learned from the 
lesson-paper, but it was necessary to search the 
Bible for these other verses. At first Marty did 
not know how to begin to find them and ap- 
pealed to her mother for help. Mrs. Ashford 
gave all the assistance in her power, though 
saying with a half -sigh, 

" I 'm afraid I do n't know much about these 
things, Marty." 

One day Mrs. Ashford had been out shop- 
ping and in the evening several parcels were 
sent home. These she opened in the sitting- 
room. As she unwrapped quite a large one 
Mr. Ashford inquired, 

'' What is that huge book ?" 

When his wife handed it to him he whistled 
and exclaimed, 

''A concordance ! What in the world do you 



56 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

want with this? Are you going to study the- 
ology ?" 

''No," replied Mrs. Ashford, laughing, ''but 
Marty comes to me with so many questions that 
I found I could not get on any longer without 
that." 

"What's a concordance, mamma?" asked 
Marty, "and has it anything to do with me?" 

" It is a book to help us find all those verses 
in the Bible you have been asking me about. 
You see I 'm not as good and wise as your friend 
Mrs. Howell, and do n't know as much about 
the Bible as she does." 

" You 're every bit as good," declared Marty, 
who by this time had got both arms around her 
mother's waist as she stood on the rug, and was 
looking up in her face lovingly, " and you will 
be as wise w^hen you are as old, for she is a 
great deal older than you." 

Her father and mother both laughed at 
Marty's earnestness, and Mr. Ashford said, 

" That 's right, Marty. Stand up for your 
mother." 

They found the concordance very useful, and 
from time to time spent many happy hours 
searching the Scriptures with its aid, comparing 
passages and talking them over. Not only did 
they find texts for the band, but other subjects 
were traced through the sacred pages. Occa- 



HOW MISSIONS HELPED THE HOME FOLKS. 5/ 

sionally Marty saw her mother busy with the 
concordance and Bible when she had not asked 
her assistance about verses. 

It was while Marty was giving wholes in- 
stead of tenths and the red box was so well 
filled, that it met with an accident that disfig- 
ured it for life. Though the occurrence was a 
sad and humiliating one for ^larty, it led to 
good results. 

She had the box out one day and was count- 
ing the money, although she knew precisely 
how much there was. iVs a good deal of it was 
in pennies it made quite a noise, so that Freddie, 
attracted by the bright outside and noisy inside, 
thought he would like to have the box to play 
with. He asked Marty to give it to him, but 
she, busy with her counting, answered rather 
sharply, 

" No, indeed ; you can't have it. Go away, 
now. Do n't touch !" 

But Freddie was very quick in his move- 
ments, and before she could get it out of his 
reach he had seized it and shaken the contents 
all over the floor. Marty, very angry at having 
her beautiful box treated so roughly, and seeing 
the money rolling about in all directions, cried 
in loud tones, 

" Let go, you naughty boy ! You '11 break 
it!" 



58 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

Freddie, now angry also, and determined to 
have what he wanted, held on manfully, scream- 
ing, " Dive it to me ! dive it to me !" and in the 
struggle a small piece was broken off the lid. 

Mrs. Ashford, hearing the loud tones, hurried 
into the room, and arrived in time to see Marty 
strike Freddie with one hand while she held 
the box high above her head with the other. 
Freddie was pounding her with all his little 
strength and crying uproariously. 

"Marty, Marty!" called Mrs. Ashford, "don't 
strike your little brother. What is the matter ? 
Come here, Freddie." 

But Freddie stamped his foot and screamed, 
"Will have it! Will have pretty box!" and 
Marty wailed, " Oh ! he 's broken my lovely box 
and spilled all my money." 

It was some time before peace was fully re- 
stored, though Marty was soon very repentant 
for what she had done and Freddie's ill-temper 
never lasted very long. After standing a while 
with his face to the wall, as was his custom on 
such occasions, crying loudly, the little tempest 
was all over. He turned around, and putting 
up his hands to wipe his eyes said pitifully, 

" My teeks are so wet, and I have no hami- 
titch to dry them." 

" Come here and I '11 dry them," said his 
mother, taking him on her knee. 




A Missionary Twig. Page 5S. 



HOW MISSIONS HELPED THE HOME FOLKS. 59 

" My chin is all wet," lie said. 

''So it is, but we '11 dry all your face." 

"And my hands are all wet." 

" What a poor little wet boy !" said his mo- 
ther tenderly, but cheerfully too. 

After making him comfortable she said, 

" Now are you sorry you were such a 
naughty boy?" 

He nodded his head, and turning to Marty, 
who was crawling around gathering up her 
money, he said, ''Sorry, Marty." 

Marty crept up to him, and kissing over and 
over the little arm she had struck, said w^ith eyes 
full of tears, 

" You dear little darling, you do n't know 
how awfully sorry Marty is for being so bad to 
you !" 

Then they rubbed their curly heads together 
until Freddie began to laugh, and in a few mo- 
ments he was playing with his tin horse as 
merrily as if nothing had happened, while 
Marty gathered up and put away her treasures. 

"Now, Marty," said her mother, "you must 
keep that out of Freddie's sight. He is nothing 
but a baby, and does n't know that it is any 
different from any other box. Let me see 
where it is broken. Perhaps I can mend it." 

" No, mamma," said Marty, " I do n't want it 
mended. I am going to let it be this way to 



6o A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

remind me of how naughty I was to my dear 
little brother, and maybe it will keep me from 
getting so angry with him again. It does seem 
dreadful, too, to think that just when I 'm trying 
to be good to children away over the sea, I 
should be partic'lerly bad to my own little 
brother, does n't it?" 

" I sha' n't say a word," replied her mother, 
*' for I see you can rebuke yourself." 

So the broken missionary box was a constant 
reminder to Marty that her work for those far 
away should make her all the more loving to 
the dear ones at home. 



NOT IN THE GOOD TIMES." 6l 



CHAPTER VIII. 

"NOT IN THE GOOD TIMES." 

One Saturday afternoon as Edith and Marty 
entered the room where the meetings of the 
band were held, half a dozen girls rushed to 
them, exclaiming, 

"Oh, what do you think! Mary Cresswell 
has a letter from Mrs. C !" 

How eager they all were to hear that letter ! 
As soon as the opening exercises were over, 
Miss Walsh told Mary she might read it. The 
young secretary looked quite proud and import- 
ant as she unfolded the letter, very tenderly, 
indeed, for it was written on thin paper, as 
foreign letters are, and she was afraid of tear- 
ing it. 

After speaking very nicely of the letter she 

had received from them, Mrs. C went on to 

tell them something about Lahore and about the 
school they were interested in. She said : 

"You must not imagine a well-arranged 
schoolroom with desks, maps, black-boards, and 
so on. We cannot afford anything like that, and 
in any case it would be useless to the kind of 
pupils we have. We pay a woman a little for 



62 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

the use of part of the room in which she lives, 
and while the school is in session she goes on 
with her work in one corner. This room is quite 
dark, as, having no windows, all the light it 
receives is from the door. It has no furniture 
to speak of. The teacher and pupils sit on the 
earth floor." 

She then described the dress of the little 
girls, which certainly did not appear to be very 
comfortable for the cool weather they sometimes 
have in North India, and said, " No matter how 
poor and scanty the clothing, they must have 
some kind of jewelry, even if it is only glass or 
brass bangles. They are anything but cleanly, 
as they are not taught in their own homes to be 
so ; besides, some of their customs are considera- 
bly against cleanliness. For instance, they must 
not wash themselves at all for a certain length 
of time after the death of relatives. So it some- 
times happens the children come to school in a 
very dirty condition." 

These children, Mrs. C said, were bright 

and learned quite readily. She mentioned some 
of the hymns and Scripture verses they knew, 
and some of the answers they had given to ques- 
tions she put to them. 

'' But the great difficulty is," she wrote, "they 
are taken away from school so young to be mar- 
ried- and thus lost to us. Still it is good to think 



"NOT IN THE GOOD TIMES. 63 

that they receive some relig-ious instruction, and 
matters in regard to girls and women in India 
are gradually improving. Not quite so much 
stress is laid on child-marriage ; indeed, some 
native societies are being formed for the pur- 
pose of opposing this custom, and many more 
girls are allowed to attend school than used to 
be the case. 

*' But there is room yet for great improve- 
ment. You, my young friends, in your happy 
childhood and girlhood, cannot conceive the 
miseries of these poor little creatures. Thank 
God your lot is cast in a Christian land, and oh ! 
do all you can to send the gospel light into these 
dark places of the earth." 

The girls had a great deal to say about this 
letter, and as it was sewing afternoon, Miss 
Walsh allowed them to talk over their work 
instead of having any reading. 

"Somebody told me," said little Daisy Rob- 
erts, "that in India they don't care as much 
about girls as boys, and sometimes they kill the 
girl babies. Is that so?" 

" Yes," replied Miss Walsh. " It used to be 
a very common custom, and is still so to some 
extent, though the British Government has done 
much to stop it." 

" They must be very cruel to want to kill 
their own dear little babies. Why, if anybody 



64 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

should hurt our little Nellie, we 'd all fly at him 
and nearly tear him to pieces," and Daisy's face 
got very red and she doubled up her little fist at 
the very thought of such a thing. 

"It isn't always, nor perhaps often, done in 
a spirit of cruelty. Sometimes it is because the 
parents are poor and cannot afford to marry 
their daughters, for weddings cost a great deal, 
and according to the notions of the country 
everybody must be married. Often it ruins a 
man to get his daughters married, and he lives 
in poverty all the rest of his life. Then very 
ignorant and superstitious parents sometimes 
sacrifice their children to please their gods, and 
as girls are not as much thought of as boys, it is 
frequently the girls who are killed. But, as I 
told you, the Government does not allow such 
doings, and when people are found breaking the 
law they are punished. Besides, as Christianity 
spreads these wicked things cease." 

" I think that way they have of making little 
girls get married is awful," said Edith. ''Just 
think of being dragged off to be married when 
3'OU 're only a little mite of a thing, and having 
to leave your own mamma and live with a cross 
old mother-in-law who abuses you!" 

'' Do n't their fathers and mothers love them 
at all, Miss Agnes, that they send them off that 
way and allow them to be miserable?" asked 



"NOT IN THE GOOD TIMES." 65 

Marty, who was ready to cry over the miseries 
of the poor little India girl. 

''Of course there are many cruel parents — 
heathenism, you know, does not teach people to 
be kind and loving — but many love their chil- 
dren as much as your parents love you. In fact 
they are over-indulgent to them, and let them 
do just what they please when they are small. 
And you may imagine that the mother espe- 
cially has a very sore heart when her little 
daughter is taken from her and when she hears 
of her being ill-treated in her new home. But 
it is considered a disgrace if girls are not 
married when mere children; and a loving 
mother wishes to keep her daughters from dis- 
grace." 

''And how if the little girl's husband dies?" 
Rosa Stevenson inquired. 

" Oh, then the poor little widoAV leads a mis- 
erable life." 

"Why, how?" Marty asked. "Can't she go 
back home then?" 

"No," Miss Walsh answered. "She has to 
live on in the father-in-law's house, where she is 
treated shamefully, made to do hard work, is 
half starved, and not allowed clothes enough to 
keep her comfortable. She is not taken care of 
when sick, and is treated worse in every way 
than you have any idea of or ever can have." 

A Missionary Twig. ^ 



^ A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

" It 's perfectly dreadful !" declared one of the 
girls. 

'' Did n't they use to burn the widows on 
their husbands' funeral pile?" asked another. 

*^ Yes, but the British Government put a stop 
to that." 

'' I believe I 'd rather be burnt up and done 
with it than have to lead such a miserable life," 
said Mary Cresswell. 

"Oh, no, it would be dreadful to be burnt," 
said Rosa. 

" Seems to me it 's dreadful all around," said 
Marty, sighing. 

*' You may be thankful you do n't have to 
make the choice," said Miss Walsh. 

''Then the poor children are not even made 
comfortable when they go to school," Rosa went 
on, " so dirty and forlorn !" 

" How queerly they 're dressed," said Hannah 
Morton. 

" They seem to be dressed principally in ear- 
rings and bracelets," remarked Marty. 

"Miss Agnes," inquired Mary, "aren't there 
other kinds of schools besides these little day- 
schools?" 

" Oh, yes. One of the first things that the 
missionaries try to do is to establish boarding- 
schools, so as to get the boys and girls altogether 
away from the influence of their heathen homes. 



''NOT IN THE GOOD TIMES." 6/ 

This is the way many converts are made. There 
are now many such schools and much good has 
been done by them. You remember we sent the 
extra ten dollars we had last year to help build 
an addition to a boarding-school in China." 

" Are Chinese little girls treated as badly as 
the ones in India?" Marty asked. 

" Why, yes," said Hannah, before Miss Walsh 
could reply. '' Do n't you remember the ' Chi- 
nese Slave Girl,' that Miss Agnes read to us ? — 
at least read some of it. And don't you know 
how they are tortured by binding their feet?" 

" That is n't done on purpose to torture them," 
said Mary. " That 's a custom of the country." 

" Most of their customs appear to be tor- 
tures," said IMarty. 

''Yes," said Miss Walsh, "the customs of 
barbarous and half-civilized nations are very 
hard on the women and girls." 

"Well, it all makes me feel very sorrowful," 
Marty declared. " I never thought before, when 
I 've had such good times all my life, that there 
are so many little girls who are not — a — " 

" Not in the good times?" said Miss Walsh, 
helping her out. 

" Yes, ma'am ; and I do wish I could do some- 
thing for some of them." 

" So do I," said several of the others. 

" I suppose," suggested Edith, "the faster we 



6S A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

send the gospel to those countries the better it 
will be for the girls and everybody." 

" Could n't we raise more money this year, 
enough to support another school, or to pay for 
a girl or boy in a boarding-school somewhere ?" 
Rosa proposed. 

" In that case we should have to double, or 
more than double, our usual amount," said Miss 
Walsh. " The question is, can we do that ?" 

'' Oh, do let us try !" exclaimed several of the 
girls. 

Then they began forthwith to make plans for 
raising more money. 

" Of course the more members we have, the 
more money we'll raise," said Mary Cress well, 
*' so I think we 'd better try again to get others 
to join our band. I have asked the Patterson 
girls two or three times, but I 'm going to ask 
them again." 

" Better not ask them plump to join," sug- 
gested Bertie Lee. '' Just get them somehow to 
come to one meeting, and then they '11 be sure to 
want to belong." 

'' There 's some wisdom in that," said Miss 
Walsh, laughing. 

*' Yes 'm," said Bertie, '* and I believe I '11 try 
that way with Annie Kelley." 

" I 'm going to ask that new girl in our Sun- 
day-school class," said Hannah. 



'' NOT IN THE GOOD TIMES." 69 

" I 'm going to try to get somebody to come," 
said Marty. 

" So am I," '' And I," cried the others. 

" That 's right," said Miss Walsh. '' We want 
to get as many people as possible interested in 
missionary work, and, as Mary says, the more 
that are interested and belong to societies, the 
more money will be raised, and, of course, the 
more good will be done. So, don't you see, you 
are aiding the cause very much when you try to 
make our meetings attractive, and so induce 
others to join the band." 

*' I Ve thought of a way to make some mis- 
sionary money, if it would be right to do it," said 
Edith. 

" What is it ?" asked Miss Walsh. 

"Well — you know those prizes Dr. Edgar 
and Mr. Stevenson give at the Sunday-school 
anniversary for learning the Psalms and chap- 
ters — would it do to ask them to give us money 
instead of books or anything else, so that we 
might have it for missions ?" 

" We certainly might ask our pastor and su- 
perintendent w^hat they think of the plan. I 
have no doubt they would be willing to adopt 
it when they know what the money is to be used 
for. I think myself your idea is a very good 
one." 

" Yes," said Rosa, " we should not only be 



70 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

Studying the Bible for our own sakes, but be 
helping missions at the same time." 

''We 'd be working for our missionary money 
then, shouldn't we?" remarked one of the 
girls. 

"Yes, indeed!'' replied another, with a laugh 
and shrug. She was not fond of committing to 
memory. 

" It 's a good way, though," said Marty, stand- 
ing up for Edith's suggestion, '' and I 'm going 
to start right in and learn something. Miss 
Agnes, I wonder how much they 'd give for the 
119th Psalm?" 

Marty asked this in real earnest, and al- 
though Miss Walsh felt like smiling, she an- 
swered gravely, 

"I do n't think it is quite the right spirit in 
which to study the Bible, Marty — doing it only 
for the sake of the money, even if the money 
is for missions." 

" Oh ! I should n't do it just for the money, 
but I thought if I could get more for a long 
Psalm than for a short one, I 'd rather learn 
the long one, and have more missionary mon- 
ey. But I shouldn't want to do it if it was 
wrong, you know," Marty added, looking dis- 
tressed. 

" I know you would not," said Miss Walsh 
kindly. " I have no doubt your motives are all 



''NOT IN THE GOOD TIMES." 71 

right, though you can hardly explain them. I 
can understand that you would be willing to do 
considerable hard work for missions, and I am 
glad of your willingness and enthusiasm. They 
help me." 

Then Marty looked radiant. 

There were other plans proposed, and every 
one had so much to say that Miss Walsh had 
some trouble in getting the meeting to break 
up. 



^2 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 



CHAPTER IX. 

JENNIE. 

" I DO b'lieve," said Marty one day, after she 
had been a member of the mission -band for 
several months, '' I do b'lieve that hearing so 
much about the poor little children in India 
and China and those places, and trying to do 
something to help them, makes me feel far 
more like helping poor children here at home. 
Now, there 's Jennie — I know I should n't have 
thought much about her if I had n't been think- 
ing of those far-away children." 

This was after she had made some sacrifices 
for the benefit of poor little Jennie, and this is 
the way she first came to know of her. 

When the spring house-cleaning was ^oing 
on, Mrs. Ashford's regular helper one day could 
not come and sent another woman. In the 
evening w^hen Mrs. Ashford went into the 
kitchen to pay this Mrs. Scott for her day's 
work, Marty, who had a great habit of following 
her mother around the house, went also. Mrs. 
Scott had just finished her supper, and after 
receiving her money and replying to Mrs. Ash- 
ford's pleasant remarks, she said hesitatingly, 



JENNIE. 73 

pointing to a saucer of very fine canned peaches 
which was part of her supper, but which she 
had apparently only tasted, " Please, mem, may 
I take them splendid peaches home to my sick 
little girl ? She can't eat nothin' at all hardly, 
and she would relish them, I know. If you 'd jist 
give me the loan of an old bowl or somethin — " 

*'0h! have you a sick child?" said Mrs. Ash- 
ford sympathizingly. '' She shall certainly have 
some peaches, but you must eat those yourself. 
Katie, get — " 

''Oh! no, mem," protested Mrs. Scott, "that 's 
too much like beggin'. I jist wanted to take 
mine to her." 

" No, it isn't begging at all," said Mrs. Ash- 
ford. " I 'm very glad you told me about your 
little girl. Katie, fill one of those small jars 
with peaches." 

Then Mrs. Ashford went into the pantry, and 
returning with two large oranges and some 
Albert biscuit, asked, 

" Can you carry these also ?" 

Mrs. Scott was full of thanks, and said she 
knew such nice things would do Jennie a world 
of good. 

" I can make enough to keep her warm in 
winter and get her plain vittles, but it isn't at 
all what she ought to have now, I know," she 
said sorrowfully. 



74 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

Mrs. Ashford asked what was the matter 
with Jennie and how long she had been ill. 
Mrs. Scott replied that she had hurt her back 
more than a year ago ; and though she had been 
''doctored" then and appeared to get a little 
better, since they moved to their present abode — 
for they came from a distant town — she had be- 
come worse and was now not able to walk at all, 
but was obliged to lie in bed, sometimes suffer- 
ing much pain. 

'' How was she hurt?" Mrs. Ashford inquired. 

"She fell down the stair," was all the reply 
given, but Katie said afterward that she had 
heard that Jennie was thrown or pushed down 
stairs by her drunken father. She said poor 
Mrs. Scott had had a very hard life with this 
shiftless, drunken husband, who abused her and 
the children. All the children were dead now 
except Jennie, who was about a year older than 
Marty, and early in the winter "old Scott," as 
Katie called him, died himself from the effects 
of a hurt received in a fight while "on a spree." 
As Mrs. Scott had been ill part of the winter 
and unable to work much, she had got behind 
with her rent, and altogether had been having 
a very hard time. 

Marty was very much interested in what 
Mrs. Scott said, and asked a question or two on 
her own account. 



JENNIE. 75 

" Who stays with your little girl when you 
are away?" 

"Bless your sweet eyes! nobody stays with 
her. She just lies there her lone self, unless 
some of the other children in the house run in 
and out, but mostly she does n't want their 
noise." 

'' How long has she been in bed?" 

" Most of the time for eight months, miss," 
replied the poor mother with a sigh. 

'' Does n't she ever sit up in the rocking- 
chair?" 

. " We have no rocking-chair, but sometimes 
when I go home from work, or the days I have 
no work, I hold her in my arms a bit to rest 
her." 

" Has she got anything to amuse her?" 

" Yes, she has a picture-book I got her last 
Christmas." 

" Mamma !" exclaimed Marty, as soon as the 
door closed behind Mrs. Scott, "just think of 
lying in bed since Christmas, and now it 's the 
first of May, with nothing but one picture-book !" 

"Ah! Marty," said her mother, "there are 
many people in the world who have very hard 
times." 

" Well, I do n't know them all, and I could n't 
help them all if I did ; but I feel that I know 
Jennie real well, and mayn't I give her some 



"^6 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

of my books and playthings? a whole lot, so 
that she wont be so lonesome when her mother 's 
away." 

'' I was thinking of going to see her soon, 
and if yon wish you may go too and carry her 
a picture-book or something of the sort." 

Marty in her usual wholesale way would have 
carried half her possessions to Jennie, but Mrs. 
Ashford prevailed upon her to limit her gift to 
a small book and a few bright cards. 

''You would better see Jennie first," she said. 
" She may not care for books and may be too 
miserable to care much for playthings." 

It happened the day they fixed upon to go 
Mrs. Ashford brought home from market a 
small measure of strawberries, though they 
were yet somewhat expensive. Marty, seeing 
them on the lunch-table, nearly went wild over 
them, being very fond of the fruit, but her 
mother noticed that after she was served she 
barely. tasted them, and then sat with the spoon 
in her hand gravely thinking. 

" Do n't you like them after all, Marty?" 

*' O mamma, they 're perfectly delicious ! I 
was just thinking how good they Avould taste to 
Jennie. Can't we take her some of them ?" 

" I am afraid there are none to spare. You 
know Katie' must have some, and I want to save 
a few for your papa." 



JENNIE. 77 

**I might take her mine," said Marty slowly. 
"I Ve only eaten one." But she looked at the 
berries longingly. 

" That would be too much of a sacrifice, I 
fear," said Mrs. Ashford, "but I '11 tell you what 
we will do if you are willing. You set yours 
aside for Jennie and I will give you half of 
mine, and then we will all have some." 

Marty was afraid it would not be fair to have 
her mother make a sacrifice also, but Mrs. Ash- 
ford declared she should like it of all thines, and 
was very glad Marty had thought of taking some 
berries to Jennie. 

So the strawberries were put in a basket with 
two glasses of jelly, some nice rusks that Katie 
was famous for making, and a closely-covered 
dish of chicken broth. Marty had her parcel 
ready, and they set out on their expedition. 

When they reached the house and knocked 
at the door of the room Mrs. Scott had directed 
them to, a weak but shrill voice cried out, 
"Come!" 

They entered a neat but poorly furnished 
room, of which the only occupant was a pale, 
thin girl, lying in what appeared to be a very 
uncomfortable position in bed. 

" I suppose you are Jennie," said Mrs Ash- 
ford, with her pleasant smile. 

" Yes, ma'am," answered the girl, staring. 



78 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

"I am Mrs. Ashford. My little girl and I 
have come to see you." 

Jennie probably had few visitors, and she 
certainly did not know how to treat them. She 
did not ask her present ones to be seated, and 
merely continued to stare at them as well as she 
could stare in the doubled -up way she was 
lying. 

"Your mother is out to-day, is she?" said 
Mrs. Ashford. 

*' Yes, but she 's only gone for half a day. 
She ought to be home now," and then the poor 
child broke into a whining cry, saying, 

'' I wish she 'd come and fix me, for I 'm all 
slid down, and give me some dinner." 

It is very hard to be polite and pleasant when 
you are faint, sick, and generally miserable. 

" Wont you let me fix you?" asked Mrs. Ash- 
ford. She put the basket on the table, and 
taking off her gloves, approached the bed. 

" Now, Marty," she said, " as I raise Jennie, 
you beat up the pillows." 

Marty beat them with a will, and the sick 
girl was soon comfortably placed. She appeared 
greatly relieved and sighed from satisfaction. 
Mrs. Ashford, seeing a tin plate on the shelf, 
covered it with one of the napkins from her 
basket, and placing on it the small glass saucer 
of strawberries and a rusk, gave it to Marty to 



JENNIE. 79 

carry to Jennie. The wan face of the invalid 
flushed with pleasure when she saw the dainty 
food. 

'' For me !" she exclaimed, 

'^ Of course it 's for you," replied Marty, set- 
tling the plate on the bed. 

Just then Mrs. Scott entered, almost breath- 
less from her hurried walk, having been de- 
tained, and knowing Jennie would need her. 
She was exceedingly grateful when she found 
Mrs. Ashford and Marty ministering to her sick 
child. 

''O mother!" cried the latter. ''The lady 
lifted me up in bed ; and see the strawberries ! 
Some are for you." 

'' No, no," protested her mother, but Jennie 
persisted in forcing at least one upon her. 
When Marty saw how the berries were enjo3'ed 
she felt very well repaid for having been satis- 
fied with a smaller portion herself. 

Mrs. Ashford inquired what had been done 
for Jennie, and found she had had no doctor 
since coming to the city. 

'' I have no money to pay a doctor," said poor 
Mrs. Scott, wiping her eyes, '' and I can't go to a 
stranger and ask him to attend her for nothing. 
I give her the medicine the doctor told me to get 
when she was first hurt, but it do n't seem to do 
any good now." 



80 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

Mrs. Ashford said she would speak to a doc- 
tor not far from there, with whom she was well 
acquainted, and she was sure he would be willing 
to come and see what could be done for the 
child. 

"It is very hard that you have to be away 
from her so much, when she is sick, and almost 
helpless." 

" It is hard, mem, but what can I do? I must 
work to pay the rent and get us bread, and glad 
enough I am to have the work. And she 's not 
always so forlorn as you found her, for mostly 
she can move herself. She 's a bit weak to-day. 
Then when I go for all day, I leave things 
handy on a chair by the bed, and the people in 
the house are real kind, coming in to see if she 
wants anything and to mend the fire." 

In the meantime the children were not say- 
ing much, for Jennie, besides being somewhat 
shy, appeared tired and weak. She was greatly 
pleased with the book and cards, holding them 
tenderly in her hands. Marty sat in silence a 
while, and then asked, 

''Have you a doll?" 

" No," replied Jennie. "I never had one." 

'' Never in your whole life !" exclaimed Mar- 
ty, extremely astonished. 

" No," said Jennie quietly. " But wunst we 
lived next door to a girl who had one, and some- 



JENNIE. 8 1 

times she let me hold it. It was the very beauti- 
fulest kind of a doll, / think," she added with 
great animation : " had light curly hair and big 
blue eyes." 

Marty was so overcome that she could do 
nothing but stand and gaze at the little girl who 
never had a doll, and nothing more was said 
until her mother was ready to go home. 



A Missionary Twig. 



82 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 



CHAPTER X. 

LAURA AMELIA. 

On their way home Mrs. Ashford stopped at 
Dr. Fisher's, and finding him in his office, made 
her plea, and readily obtained his promise to see ' 
Jennie. 

All the way Marty w^as unusually silent and 
appeared to be thinking intently. When they 
were nearly home she said impressively, 

" Mamma, do you know, Jennie never had a 
doll — never, in her whole life !" 

"Indeed!" 

" No, ma'am ; and I 've been thinking I 'd 
like to give her one of mine." 

" Do you think you could part with any of 
yours?" 

'' I love them all dearly, but I think I cou/d do 
it to make Jennie happy. I know she 'd like to 
have a doll, and it Avould be a long time before I 
could save money enough to buy her one." 

" Well," said Mrs. Ashford, " I 'm sure she 
would be very happy with one of yours, but you 
had better take time to think it over well, and 
not do anything you would afterward regret." 

^larty thought it over until the next evening, 



LAURA AMELIA. 83 

and then said she still wished to give Jennie the 
doll. 

" Very well, then," said her mother, '' I am 
willing- you should do it. Which doll do you 
think of giving her?" 

" Laura Amelia." 

" Why, she is your third largest and one of 
your prettiest! Why do you choose her?" 

" Because Jennie would like a fair doll, and 
she 's the only fair one I have except the one 
Grandma Brewster gave me, and I shouldn't 
like to give that away." And then she repeated 
what Jennie had said about the next-door girl's 
doll. 

So it was settled that Laura Amelia was to 
leave home the next Saturday. Her clothes 
were put in good order, and Mrs. Ashford made 
her a travelling dress. 

On Friday night when Marty, in her little 
wrapper and worsted slippers, made her appear- 
ance at the sitting-room door to say '' Good- 
night," she had Laura Amelia clasped in her 
arms. 

'' Halloa ! Miss Moppet," said her papa. "Are 
you off? What's the matter with that dolly? 
Do you have to walk her to sleep ?" 

*' Oh, no. She 's very good, but she 's going 
to sleep with me, because it's the last night 
she'll be here." 



84 A xMISSIONARY TWIG. 

Marty tried to reply steadily, but her voice 
trembled. 

"Ah !" said her papa sympathizingly. " Whe^e 
is she going?" 

" I 'm going to give her to Jennie." ^ 

Of course Mr. Ashford had heard all about 
Jennie. He approved of her being helped, but 
did not like to see Marty in distress, and he 
noticed her eyes were full of tears. 

*' It is a shame for the child to give away 
playthings she is fond of," he said to his wife. 

" I did n't tell her to give it," replied Mrs. 
Ashford. " It was her own notion." 

" Here, Marty," said her father, putting his 
hand in his pocket, '' you keep that doll yourself 
and I '11 give you some money to get Jennie 
another one." 

" Oh ! no, papa," said Marty earnestly. 
" Thank you ever so much, but I want to give 
Jennie a doll all myself, and I 've quite made up 
my mind to give her this one. I thought it 
over a whole day — didn't I, mamma? You 
mustn't s'pose I don't zmjit to give Laura 
Amelia to Jennie, because I do, but you know 
such things make one feel a little sad for a 
while." 

" I presume they do," said Mr. Ashford, 
smiling as he lifted both Marty and the doll 
to his knee. " How many dolls have you ?" 



LAURA AMELIA. 85 

" Seven, counting the two little china ones." 

'' Well, that 's a pretty numerous family for 
f)ne small girl to care for. I guess you can spare 
Lucy Aurelia." 

" Lucy Aurelia !" Marty laughed heartily. 
" O papa, what is the reason you never can re- 
member my dolls' names?" 

'' I do n't see how you can remember them 
yourself." Then as he kissed her good-night he 
said, 

"I am glad my little girl is learning to be 
kind to the poor and friendless." 

The next day there was some prospect that 
Marty would not get to Jennie's after all, as 
Mrs. Ashford could not very well go with her 
and would not let her go alone. Marty was 
preparing to be dreadfully disappointed, but her 
mother said, " Wait until after lunch and we will 
see what can be done." 

Just then there was a tap at the door, and a 
tall, dark-eyed, smiling young lady entered. 

" Why, here 's Cousin Alice !" exclaimed 
Marty, and the warm welcome the visitor re- 
ceived from them all showed what a favorite 
she was. 

" I 've come to stay to lunch if you will have 
me," she announced, throwing her wrap and 
gloves on the couch. Marty immediately in- 
vited her to stay for ever, and Freddie began 



86 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

building a wall with his blocks all around her 
chair so that she could not possibly get away. 

''Alice," said Mrs. Ashford, after there had 
been a good deal of talk and play, '' I am going 
to ask you to do something for me." 

'' I shall be only too happy to do it. Cousin 
Helen," said Miss Alice in her bright way. 
" You have only to speak." 

" Marty wants to do an errand down near the 
old postoffice this afternoon. I do n't like to 
have her go into that part of the town by her- 
self, and I can't go with her. Would you be 
willing to go with her?" 

" Most certainly," was the cordial reply. 

" Oh ! that will be splendid," cried Marty. 

Then both she and her mother proceeded to 
tell their cousin all about Jennie, after which 
Marty dressed the doll and packed its clothes in 
a box. 

" What a good idea it is of Marty's to give 
that doll and all its belongings to Jennie!" said 
Miss Alice. '' It w^ill be such amusement and 
occupation for her when she is alone so much. 
It must be perfectly dreadful to lie there all day, 
and day after day, with nothing to do and noth- 
ing to interest her. I suppose she cannot read." 

" Not very well, I fancy, for her mother said 
they had moved about so much before she was 
hurt that she had very little chance to go to 



LAURA AMELIA. 8/ 

school. I suppose there is really not much of 
anything she could do now, as she is so weak 
and miserable, but it has just occurred to me 
that if she gets stronger under Dr. Fisher's 
treatment, you might help her to a light, pleas- 
ant occupation which would enliven her dull 
life." 

'* I ? How? I 'm sure I should be very glad 
to do anything possible for the poor girl." 

"You might teach her to crochet or knit. 
You do such work to perfection and know so 
much about it. I know you have plenty of odds 
and ends of worsted and other materials, and I 
can furnish you with a good deal more. If she 
is able to learn, I think it would be a charming 
work for her, and might be very useful in com- 
ing years." 

'' That is an excellent suggestion. I shall be 
very glad to teach her, or at least try to teach 
her, for I do n't know how I should succeed in 
the attempt." 

" Oh ! you would succeed beautifully, and it 
need not take up much of your time, as Landis 
Court is nearer you than it is to us, and you 
could run over for a little while any time. But 
you can see when you go whether it is worth 
while to speak of the matter." 

" It would be just lovely !" was Marty's 
opinion. 



88 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

'' Now, Marty," cautioned her mother, ''do n't 
you say anything about it to Jennie. Just let 
Cousin Alice do it in her own nice way." 

''A thousand thanks," said Cousin Alice with 
her gay laugh. '' 1 11 be sure to do my prettiest 
after that." 

When they made the visit, however, it was 
found useless to mention crocheting or any 
other subject to Jennie. Her attention was al- 
together absorbed by the doll. Mrs. Scott hap- 
pened to be at home, and while she was bust- 
ling around getting chairs for her visitors and 
Marty was introducing her cousin, Jennie never 
took her eyes from Laura Amelia. Presently 
she said in a trembling voice, 

" May I hold your doll a minute ?" 

" I brought her for you," said Marty, handing 
the doll. 

" For me to hold a minute ?" 

'' No ; to keep. She 's your dolly now." 

Jennie looked perfectly bewildered at first, 
and then when she beo^an to understand the 
matter she clasped the doll in her arms and 
burst into tears. 

Marty was very much frightened. " Oh ! 
do n't let her cry," she said to Mrs. Scott. '' It 
will make her sick." 

" Never mind, missy ; she '11 soon be all 
right. Come now Jennie, do n't cry. Sit up 



LAURA AMELIA. 89 

and thank the little lady for the beautiful pres- 
ent. But it 's too much to give her. Who 'd ha' 
thought of you bringing such a handsome doll ! 
And just what she 's always wanted but never 
looked to having. I 'm sure I do n't know how 
to thank you," and the poor woman threatened 
to follow Jennie's example and cry over their 
good fortune. 

Then Cousin Alice came to the rescue by 
suggesting that Marty should tell Jennie the 
doll's name and show her wardrobe. The little 
girls were soon chattering over the contents of 
the box, and Miss Alice learned from Mrs. 
Scott that the doctor had been to see Jennie. 
He said he saw no reason why with proper 
treatment she should not become well again, 
though it was likely she would always be some- 
what lame and perhaps never very strong. He 
had sent her strengthening medicine and said 
she must drink milk every day. 

Then began better times for Jennie than she 
had ever had in her life before. First, as she 
would have said herself, there was the doll to 
love and cherish, to dress and undress, to talk to 
and to put to sleep. Then there were the books 
and pictures, for between Marty and Edith, who 
also came, her stock of them increased rapidly. 
Then there was the decrease of pain and the 
increase of strength, for what with the bathings 



90 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

and rubbings that the doctor ordered, and the 
nourishing food that Mrs. Ashford and Miss 
Alice sent, she began to get greatly better. 

When she arrived at the point of sitting 
propped up in bed for several hours at a time, 
Miss Alice spoke of the crocheting and found 
her exceedingly willing to learn. She took it up 
quite rapidly too, and very much enjoyed work- 
ing with the bright worsteds. 

Miss Alice was greatly interested in her 
pupil and sometimes made quite long visits, 
teaching her or reading to her, and her visits 
made the little invalid so happy that she got 
better all the faster. 



THE GOOD SHEPHERD. 91 



CHAPTER XI 



THE GOOD SHEPHERD. 



Marty and Edith often accompanied Miss 
Alice when she visited Jennie. Sometimes they 
each took a doll to visit Laura Amelia, also car- 
rying some of their dishes and having a dolls* 
tea-party. This always pleased Jennie very 
much, though at first she scarcely knew how to 
play, in this quiet, lady-like fashion, as she had 
only been accustomed to playing in the street 
with rough children before she was hurt. Of 
course she had had no chance at all to play dur- 
ing the last year. 

Sometimes the girls read little stories to her. 
This she viewed as a surprising accomplishment, 
as she could only spell her way along, not being 
able to read well enough to enjoy it. So in one 
way or another they entertained her, making her 
forget her weakness. 

Sometimes they talked about other things, 
telling her of the mission-band, though, as it was 
something so outside of her experience, she 
could, with all their explanation, hardly form 
any idea of it. She took more interest in de- 
scriptions of the country, the green fields, shady 



92 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

woods, and pretty gardens. She was very fond 
of flowers, and during the early summer her 
friends kept the poor room quite bright with 
them. An old lady living near Mrs. Ashford, 
and having an unusually large yard for the city, 
had a great many flowers, and hearing of Marty's 
sick friend in Landis Court, told her whenever 
she was going over there to come and get some 
flowers for Jennie. This delighted both little 
girls extremely. 

One day when they were all with Jennie, she 
picked up one of her cards that had on it a 
picture of a shepherd leading his flock and car- 
rying a lamb in his arms. She wanted to know 
what it meant, and what a shepherd was, and 
what sheep were. After it had been explained, 
she said, 

" ' Shepherd ' makes me think of a hymn they 
used to sing in the Sunday-school dowm in the 
Harbor." 

''Did you ever go to Sunday-school?" asked 
Marty. 

" I went a little while w^hen we lived down in 
the Harbor. My teacher had a lovely velvet 
cloak trimmed with fur." 

'' Did n't she tell you about the Good Shep- 
herd?" Edith inquired. 

" No. She did n't seem to know about any 
kind of shepherd. Leastways she never let on 



THE GOOD SHEPHERD. 93 

that she did. But they used to sing beautiful 
hymns, and one was about a shepherd." 

''Was it 'Saviour, like a shepherd lead us'?" 
asked Marty. 

"That was the very one!" exclaimed Jennie 
in delight. " How did you know that was it?" 

" I thought it might be." 

"Would you like to have us sing it now?" 
Miss Alice inquired. 

"Oh, yes, indeed!" « 

So they sang it, Jennie joining in whenever 
they came to the words, " Blessed Jesus," which, 
besides the first line, was all she knew. 

" Is blessed Jesus a shepherd?" she asked. 

" He is the Good Shepherd," replied Edith. 

" Where 's his sheep ?" 

" All who believe on Him are his sheep^ for 
the Bible says, ' My sheep hear my voice, and I 
know them, and they follow me.' " 

Miss Alice saw that Jennie did not altogether 
understand Edith, so in a few simple words she 
explained that Jesus, our Lord and Saviour, 
speaks of himself as the Good Shepherd, and 
calls us to follow him. Then taking up the 
picture again she repeated what she had said 
about shepherds and their flocks, and also went 
over some of the hymn they had been singing, 
until Jennie began to get into her little muddled 
brain quite a clear idea of Jesus, our Shepherd. 



94 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

''Where is your Bible? I will show you the 
chapter about the Good Shepherd." 

"I ha'n't got one. Mother has one, but I 
guess it 's locked up in that little black trunk. 
It 's a purple one with clasps that somebody 
gave her long ago, and she always had to keep 
it hid for fear papa 'd sell it for whiskey." 

Jennie said all this very coolly, she was so 
much accustomed to the kind of life in which 
there was more whiskey than Bible ; but Edith 
and Marty looked much shocked. 

'' Never mind," said Miss Alice, " I will bring 
my Bible the next time I come and read the 
chapter to you." 

Just then a beautiful plan flashed into Marty's 
head, and as Edith was included in it, she could 
not resist reaching over and giving her arm a 
tiny squeeze. Edith must have partly under- 
stood, for she answered with a smile. 

In the meantime Miss Alice was saying to 
Jennie, 

" Did you ever hear the Psalm beginning, 
* The Lord is my Shepherd ' ?" 

*' I do n't b'lieve I ever did," said Jennie. 

'' Marty, can't you and Edith repeat it for 
her?" 

Marty was not sure she remembered it all, 
but Edith knew it, and the beautiful Psalm was 
reverently recited. 



THE GOOD SHEPHERD. 95 

That evening as Mrs. Scott, wearied with the 
labors of the day, was seated in one of the stiff' 
hard chairs doing some mending by the uncer- 
tain light of a smoky lamp, Jennie told her all 
that had been said and done in the afternoon, 
and then asked, 

" Mother, can't you find that about the shep- 
herd in your purple Bible and read it over to 
me?" 

" I '11 try, but I'm a poor reader, Jennie, and 
anyways I do n't know as I can find the place 
you want." 

She unlocked the trunk and bringing forth, 
wrapped in soft paper, an old-fashioned, small- 
print Bible that had once been handsome, but 
was now sadly tarnished, she screwed up the 
smoky lamp and began to turn the leaves. 

'' I do n't know where the place is, child. I 'm 
none so handy with books, and there 's a great 
many different chapters here." 

"It was about green pastures and quiet 
waters. Miss Alice said a pasture is a field, and 
it minded me of that grassy field where Tim 
took me the summer before he died. You know 
there was a pond in it, and we paddled along the 
edge. It was the prettiest place I ever saw, and 
on awful hot days I wish I was there again. I 
think it must be just such a place the Bible 
shepherd takes his folks to." 



g6 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

Mrs. Scott turned the leaves back and forth, 
anxious to please Jennie, but unable to find what 
she wished. 

" Now I mind," exclaimed Jennie presently : 
*' Miss Alice did n't call the green pasture piece 
a chapter ; she called it a Psalm." 

'' Oh ! now 1 11 find it," said her mother. '' I 
know about Psalms, for my good old grandfather 
used to be always reading them, and I used to 
think it was queer the way they was spelt — with 
a ' p ' at the beginning. I saw them over here 
a minute ago." 

Then after a little more searching she in- 
quired, 

'' Is this it ? ' The Lord is my Shepherd : I 
shall not want.' " 

''The very thing!" Jennie exclaimed joy- 
fully. 

Mrs. Scott, though with some difiiculty, man- 
aged to read it, while Jennie listened with closed 
eyes and clasped ^ands, thinking of the delight- 
ful places into which the Shepherd leads his 
flock. 

"They're sweet verses," said Mrs. Scott, as 
she closed the book, after laying a piece of yarn 
in to mark the place, " and it rests a body to read 
them. I call to mind now that many 's the time 
I 've heard my grandad read 'em. And I 've 
heard 'em in church, too, when I used to go." 



THE GOOD SHEPHERD. 97 

** Why don't you go to cliurcli sometimes 
now, mother?" Jennie asked. " There 's nobody 
to rail at you for going. You might borrow Mrs. 
O'Brien's bonnet after she 's been to mass, and 
go round to the church on the front street, where 
we hear the singing from every Sunday." 

Mrs. Scott began to think she should like 
to go. She cleaned off her old black alpaca 
as well as possible, and the next Sunday, bor- 
rowing her kindly Catholic neighbor's bonnet, 
she went to church for the first time in many 
years. 

She came home delighted, and had much to 
tell Jennie about the pleasant gentleman who 
gave her a seat and invited her to come again, 
about the good sermon that she could under- 
stand every bit of, and the rousing hymns, 
which indeed Jennie could hear with the win- 
dow open. 

Not long after this, one of the ladies Mrs. 
Scott worked for gave her a partly-worn sateen 
dress and a black straw bonnet, so that she was 
fitted out to go to church all summer; and go 
she did with great enjoyment. It was a pleas- 
ure to Jennie also, for with listening to the 
singing as she lay in bed, and hearing about all 
that was said and done from her mother, she 
almost felt as though she had been at church 
herself. 

A Missionary Twig. 7 



98 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

The purple Bible was not locked up any 
more, but kept handy for Miss Alice to read, 
and to mark passages for Mrs. Scott to read in 
the evening, for Jennie liked to hear the same 
things over and over. 

The plan that popped into Marty's head that 
day she told to Edith on the way home, after 
they had left Cousin Alice. 

''O Edie!" she said, "wouldn't it be nice to 
give Jennie a Bible for her very own ?" 

'' You mean for you and me together to give 
it?" said Edith. 

" Yes. You know my birthday comes in 
August and yours in September, and we always 
get some money — " 

'' And we could each give half, and get Jen- 
nie a Bible," broke in Edith. 

"Yes; or if we could nt do it then, we might 
have enough by Christmas." 

" And it would be a <^r^z//2/>// Christmas gift !" 

"ph! do let us do it," said Marty, seizing 
Edith and whirling her around and around. 

" Yes, do," said Edith, panting for breath. 



NOW don't forget!" 99 



CHAPTER XII. 
*'NO\v don't forget!" 

It was well on in June, and Mrs. Ashford 
was very busy making preparations to go to the 
country with the children. 

Two successive summers they had spent at a 
very pleasant mountain farmhouse, but the last 
year they had gone to the seashore. This sum- 
mer Mrs. Ashford decided for the farmhouse 
again, to Marty's great delight, for it was a per- 
fect paradise to her. 

She herself had many preparations to make — 
deciding which dolls to take and which to leave 
at home, and getting them all ready for what- 
ever was to be their fate. It also took a good 
deal of time to choose from her little library the 
few books her mamma allowed her to take for 
rainy days. It was a weighty matter, too, to 
select a suitable present for Evaline, the little 
girl at the farmhouse, as her father suggested 
she should do, and gave her money to buy it. 

Then Jennie was very much on her mind. 

" What will she do for soup and jelly and 
things when we are away, mamma?" she asked 
anxiously. 



100 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

" I shall tell Katie to carry her something 
now and then," Mrs. Ashford replied. " Besides, 
Cousin Alice will be in town until August, and 
she will look out for Jennie. Then Mrs. Scott 
told me the other day that she had got all her 
back rent paid up now, and she expects to have 
three days' work every week all summer ; so they 
will get on very well." 

Another day Marty came home from Jennie's 
in distress. 

" Mamma," she said, " the doctor says Jennie 
may soon begin to sit up in an easy-chair ; and 
they have n't got any. Their two chairs are the 
most uneasy things I ever saw in my life. Now, 
how is she going to sit up?" 

Mrs. Ashford laughed as she said, ''Well, I 
was going to give you a surprise, but I may as 
well tell you now that I have sent that old rock- 
ing-chair that was up in the storeroom to be 
mended, and am going to give it to Mrs. Scott." 

Marty was overjoyed to hear this. 

'' And, oh ! mamma, wont you give them the 
small table that stands in the third-story hall? 
You always say it is only in the way there, and it 
would be so nice beside Jennie's bed to put her 
things on, instead of a chair." 

'' Yes, I suppose they might as well have it." 

" And the red cover that belongs to it, mam- 
ma?" 



'^Now don't forget!" ioi 

*' O Marty, Marty !" exclaimed her mother, 
laughing. '' How many more things will you 
want for Jennie? But the red cover may go 
too." 

These things were sent, together with some 
of Marty's underclothing, a pair of half-worn 
slippers, and a couple of Mrs. Ashford's cast-off 
gingham dresses, to be made into wrappers for 
Jennie. Edith and Cousin Alice also brought 
some articles for Jennie's comfort. 

" She will need a footstool with that chair," 
said Cousin Alice. '' I have an extra hassock in 
rny room ; I '11 bring that." 

Mrs. Howell sent an old but soft and pretty 
comfort to spread over the chair, and which 
would also be handy for an additional covering 
in case of a cold night. 

'' A curtain on the window would soften the 
light on hot afternoons," Miss Alice thought. 
So she made one of some white barred muslin 
she had and put it up. She also thought that as 
Jennie still had not much appetite, some pret- 
tier dishes than those Mrs. Scott had — they 
were very few, and very coarse and battered — 
might make the food taste better. 

'' I know, when I am ill," she said to Mrs. 
Ashford, "the way my food is served makes a 
great difference." 

So she brought a cheap but pretty plate, cup, 



102 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

and saucer, with which Jennie was extremely- 
delighted. 

''After we all go away there wont be any- 
body to take flowers to Jennie/' said Edith, 
''and I'm afraid she'll miss them. She does 
enjoy them so much. I 've a great mind to buy 
her a geranium. May I, mamma? They're 
only ten cents." 

" Of course you may. I think it would be 
very nice for Jennie and her mother to have 
something of the kind growing in their room," 
said Mrs. Howell. 

She went with Edith to the florist's, and after 
helping her to select a scarlet geranium, she 
bought a pot of mignonette and another of 
sweet alyssum for Edith to give to Jennie. 

Marty helped Edith to carry their plants to 
their destination, and what rejoicing there was 
over that window-garden ! 

" It *s too much ! too much I" exclaimed Mrs. 
Scott, wiping her eyes as she looked around the 
now really comfortable room. 

Then when Miss Alice came in, as she did 
presently, with four bright - colored Japanese 
fans which she proceeded to fasten on the bare 
walls, that seemed to cap the climax. 

"There never were kinder ladies — never!" 
exclaimed Mrs. Scott, while Jennie was too 
much overcome to say anything. 



"NOW don't forget!" 103 

" It wont be so hard for Jennie to be shut up 
here, and she wont miss Marty and Edith so 
much, if she has these little bits of bright things 
to look at," said Miss Alice. 

Marty took the greatest interest in helping 
to arrange all these things for Jennie's comfort 
and happiness, and in thinking, too, how much 
pleasure they would bring into poor Mrs. Scott's 
hard-working life. When she went home after 
her final visit to Landis Court, she said with a 
sigh of relief, 

" Now they 're fixed comfor'ble, and we can 
go as soon as we like." 

All this time that she had been so engaged 
with Jennie she had not neglected the mission- 
band, but attended the meetings regularly and 
became more and more interested in what she 
heard there. 

She still pursued the plan of giving to mis- 
sions at least a 'tenth of all the money she got. 
During the spring and early summer she had 
had two or three " windfalls " — one or two small 
presents of money, and once her father had 
given her a quarter for hunting out from an 
enormous pile certain numbers of a magazine he 
wished to consult. Besides she had made a lit- 
tle money solely for the missionary-box by hem- 
ming dusters for her mother. 

The meeting on the third Saturday in June 



104 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

was very important, as it was the last regular 
meeting that would be held until September, 
and there were many arrangements to be made. 

Most of the girls and Miss Walsh herself 
expected to be away two months, but several 
members were to be at home all summer and a 
few were only going away for a short time. 
Miss Walsh said she did not think it fair that 
those remaining in town should be deprived of 
their missionary meetings. It had therefore 
been decided that the meetings should be con- 
tinued, though not just in the same way as dur- 
ing the rest of the year. No business was to be 
transacted and the girls were not to sew unless 
they wished. 

At this ''good-by" meeting, as they called 
it, Miss Walsh had a few words to say both to 
the stay-at-homes and to those who were going 
away. To the first she said, 

*' Dear girls, we leave the band in your hands 
knowing you will do all you can for its best in- 
terests. Mrs. Cresswell has kindly invited you 
to hold your meetings at her house. I have 
appointed four of the older girls to lead these 
meetings — Mary Cresswell and Hannah Morton 
in July, Ella Thomas and Mamie Dascomb in 
August. I have given each of these leaders 
some missionary reading in case you run short, 
but I dare say you will find plenty of things 



"NOW don't forget!" 105 

yourselves. I also intend to write you a little 
letter for each meeting, and should be glad to 
have any or all of you write to me." 

To the others she said, 

" Now when you are away having a good 
time, do n't forget missions. Keep up your in- 
terest and come home ready to work more ear- 
nestly and faithfully than ever. There are 
many Vv^ays of keeping the subject fresh in your 
minds and of helping along with the work even 
in vacation times. But you know this as well 
as I do, and I should like the suggestions as to 
how to do it to come from you." 

After a pause Edith said, " We all know the 
subjects for the next four meetings, and we 
might study and read just as we should do at 
home." 

" That is a good suggestion," said Miss Walsh, 
*' and one I hope you will all adopt ; for if you 
do n't, I 'm afraid the go-away s will be far be- 
hind the stay-at-homes." 

"We might remember what we hear about 
missions and tell it when we come back," said 
one of the others. 

" That would be very instructive and pleas- 
ant," said their leader; "and you may have 
plenty of opportunity to hear, as in these days 
very interesting missionary meetings are often 
held at summer resorts. Besides you may meet 



I06 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

individuals who can give you much informa- 
tion." 

'' We might do as you are going to do and 
write letters to the band at home," said another. 

" I know the band at home would like that 
very much, but you must remember that they 
must be letters suited to a missionary meeting." 

''We might join with others in holding 
meetings," suggested Rosa Stevenson. " In the 
cottage where I w^as last summer there were 
four other girls and tw^o boys who belonged to 
mission -bands, and we had a meeting every 
Sunday." 

" Good !" cried Miss Walsh. 

" If we meet any children w^ho do n't know 
about missions, wx might tell them about our 
band and what we do," said Daisy Roberts 
timidly. 

" The very thing, Daisy !" exclaimed Miss 
Walsh, patting the tiny girl on the shoulder. 
"And you think that might start them up to be- 
come mission workers, do you?" 

" Yes, ma'am," replied Daisy. 

*' I think," said Marty, after various other 
suggestions had been made, and she wondered 
that no one had thought of this, '' I think we all 
should take our missionary boxes and banks and 
barrels and jugs along with us, and put money 
in regularly as we do at home." 



*'NOW DO NT FORGET. 10/ 

"That is very important," said Miss Walsh, 
" because if we neglect to lay by our contribu- 
tions at the right time, trusting to make up the 
amount when we return home, we may find our- 
selves in a tight place and our treasury will 
suffer. And now, dear missionary workers, 
wherever you may be, at home or abroad, do n't 
forget to pray every day for the success of this 
work. Remember what we are working for is 
the advancement of the kingdom of our blessed 
Lord and Saviour." 

And then before the closing prayer they all 
stood up and sang, 

"The whole wide world for Jesus." 

This meeting filled Marty with the greatest 
enthusiasm and she felt as though she could do 
anything for missions. SJie would not forget 
the subject for a single day, she was sure. 

" Oh Miss Agnes," she said, '' I sha' n't forget 
missions. I '11 study the subjects every week 
and learn lots of missionary verses. I '11 save 
all the money I can ; and I '11 tell somebody, if it 's 
only E valine, all I know about missionary work. 
I '11 tell her the first thing when I get there. 
To be sure she can't have a band all by herself, 
but it may do good somehow." 



I08 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

OFF TO THE MOUNTAINS. 

" Here 's your train !" said Mr. Ashford, hur- 
rying into the waiting-room where he had left 
his wife and children while he purchased their 
tickets. '' I '11 carry Freddie. Come, Marty." 

While they were waiting their turn to pass 
through the gate Marty and her mother were 
jostled by the crowd against two small, ragged, 
dirty boys, who had crept by the officers and 
were looking through the railings at the arriv- 
ing and departing trains. 

" Lots of these folks are goin' to the country, 
where 'ta'n't so hot and stuffy as 'tis here," said 
the larger boy. " Was you ever in the country, 
Jimmy?" 

''Naw," replied the other, a thin, pale little 
chap about seven, leaning wearily against an 
iron post. *' Never seed no country, but I zcants 
to." 

Marty and her mother, who heard what was 
said and saw the wistful look on the small boy's 
face, pressed each other's hands and exchanged 
a sorrowful glance. Then they were obliged to 
move on ; but after going through the gate 



OFF TO THE MOUNTAINS. IO9 

Marty pulled her hand out of her mother's and, 
running- back, took a couple of cakes from a 
paper bag she carried and passed them through 
the fence to the boys. How their faces bright- 
ened at this little act of kindness ! 

"Marty, Marty!" called her father, who had 
not seen what she did and was afraid she would 
get lost in the crowd, "where are you? Hurry 
up, child!" 

Then, when he had made them comfortable 
in the car and was about bidding them good-by, 
he said, 

" Now, Marty, when you change cars stick 
closely to your mother and don't be running 
after strangers, as you did a moment ago." 

"Why, papa," Marty protested earnestly, 
" they were n't strangers ; at least I know that 
littlest boy with the awfully torn hat. He is 
Jimmy — " 

" Well, well, I can't stop now to hear who he 
is, but I did n't know he was an acquaintance of 
yours. However, don't run after anybody, or 
you will get lost some of these days. Good-by, 
good-by. Be good children, both of you." 

"Who was that boy, Marty?" asked Mrs. 
Ashford presently. 

" He 's Jimmy Torrence, and he lives in Jen- 
nie's house. Don't you remember I told you 
that one day, when we were all in Mrs. Scott's 



no A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

room singing to Jennie, a little boy came and 
leaned against the door-post and listened ? Mrs. 
Scott told him to come in and took him on her 
lap. She gave him a cup of milk, and after he 
went away she said he had been sick with a 
fever and his folks were very poor. There 's a 
good many of them, and they live in the third- 
story back-room." 

" Oh, yes, I remember. So that is the boy. 
Poor little fellow! He looks as if he needed 
some country air." 

''Doesn't he!" said Marty. '' O mamma, 
don't you think that society Mrs. Watson be- 
longs to would send him to the country for a 
week? That would be better than nothing." 

" I fear they cannot, for Mrs. Watson told 
me the other day that there are a great many 
more children who ought to be sent than they 
have money to pay for." 

'' I wish he could go," said Marty. 

The boy's pale, wistful face haunted her for 
a while, but in the excitement of the journey it 
faded from her mind. 

After the rush and roar of the train how per- 
fectly still it seemed in the green valley where 
stood Trout Run Station! How peaceful the 
mountains ! how pure and sweet the air ! 

" Mamma," said Marty almost in a whisper, 
*' everything is exactly the same as ever." 



OFF TO THE MOUNTAINS. Ill 

"Mountains don't change much/' replied 
Mrs. Ashford as she seated herself on one of 
the trunks and took Freddie on her lap. 

" But I mean this funny little station and the 
tiny river and the old red tannery over there, 
and the quietness and everything! And oh, 
there 's Hiram ! . He looks just as he did sum- 
mer before last, and I believe he 's got on the 
very same straw hat!" 

Hiram, Farmer Stokes' hired man, who had 
come to meet the travellers, now appeared from 
the rear of the station, where he had been 
obliged to stay by his horses until the train had 
vanished in the distance. His sunburnt face 
wore a broad smile, and though he did not say 
much, Mrs. Ashford and Marty knew that in his 
vSlow, quiet way he was very glad to see them. 
He seemed to be particularly struck by the fact 
that the children had grown so much, and when 
Freddie got off his mother's lap and ran across 
the platform, Hiram gazed at him in admiration, 
also seeming highly amused. 

" I can't believe this tall girl 's Marty, and as 
for the little boy — why, he was carried in arms 
the last time / saw him !" 

" Two years makes a great difference in chil- 
dren," said Mrs. Ashford. 

"That's so," Hiram assented. "Well, I 
reckon we 'd better be moving." 



112 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

" How I dread the steep hills," said Mrs. Ash- 
ford as they were being helped into the wagon 
after the baggage had been stowed away. " I 
do hope your horses are safe, Hiram. Now, 
Marty, be sure to hold on with both hands w^hen 
w^e come to the worst places." 

''Don't you be 'fraid, Mrs. Ashford; ''there 
isn't a mite of danger," said Hiram, gathering 
up the reins. " Get up !" 

"Get up!" cried Freddie, who had w^atched 
the process of getting started wdth the greatest 
interest, and who was now holding a pair of 
imaginary reins in one tiny fist and flourishing 
an imaginary whip with the other. 

Hiram laughed aloud. That Freddie could 
walk was funny enough, but that he could talk 
and make believe drive was too much for Hi- 
ram. It was some time before he got over it. 

"How's Evaline?" asked Marty. "Why 
did n't she come to meet us ?" 

" She 's spry. She wanted to come along 
down, but her ma was afraid 'twould crowd 
you." 

After a drive of about three miles among the 
mountains, the winding road gradually ascend- 
ing, wath here and there a somewhat steep 
incline, they approached an open, level place 
from which there was a magnificent view of 
w^hat Marty called the "real mountains." For 



OFF TO THE MOUNTAINS. II3 

these wooded or cultivated hills they were dri- 
ving among were only the beginnings of the 
range. Here was a cluster of houses and a 
white frame " hotel " with green blinds. 

" They 've been doing right smart of building 
in Riseborough since you were up," said Hiram 
to Mrs. Ashford. " You see the hotel 's done, 
and Sims has built him a new store, and Mrs. 
Clarkson *s been building on to her cottage." 

*' Is the hotel a success?" asked Mrs. Ashford. 

"First-rate. Full all last summer, and But- 
ton expects a lot of folks this season. A big 
party came up t' other day." 

They had a chance to see t?ie guests at the 
hotel, ladies on the piazzas and children playing 
in the green yard, while Hiram stopped to do 
an errand at the store, which was also the post- 
office. 

Nearly another mile of up-hill brought them 
to their destination — a brown farmhouse with 
its red barns and granaries standing in the 
midst of smiling fields and patches of cool, dark 
woods, while in the distance rose grand, solemn 
mountains. 

There was E valine, seated on the low gate- 
post, andtMrs. Stokes and her grown-up daugh- 
ter, Almira, in the door-way, all on the look-out 
and ready to wave their handkerchiefs the 
moment the wagon appeared. 

A Missionary Twig. 8 



114 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

*' It 's more like going to see some cousins or 
something than being summer-boarders, is n't it, 
mamma?" said Marty. 

"Here we all are, Mrs. Stokes!" cried Mrs. 
Ashford from the wagon. '' Quite an addition 
to your family." 

" The more the merrier ! I 'm right down 
glad to see you," said good-natured Mrs. Stokes, 
coming to lift the children down and kissing 
them heartily. 

The travellers were very tired after their 
long day's journey. Mrs. Ashford and Marty 
were ready to do justice to the good supper pro- 
vided, but Freddie was only able to keep his 
eyes open long enough to eat a little bread and 
milk. The next morning, however, he was as 
bright as a button, and took to country life so 
naturally that he was out in the yard feeding 
the chickens before his mother knew what he 
was about. 



A PLAN AND A TALK. 1 15 



CHAPTER XIV. 

A PLAN AND A TALK. 

Marty so enjoyed being back at the farm, 
and there was so much to see and to do, that for 
four or five days she could think of nothing else. 
She and Evaline raced all over the place, climb- 
ing trees and fences, playing in the barn or 
down in the wood, paddling in the little brook, 
riding on the hay-wagon, and going with the 
boy to bring home the cows. 

In short, the delights of farm life for the 
time being drove everything else out of Marty's 
head, and it was not until Sunday morning that 
she gave a thought to missions. Perhaps she 
would not have remembered even then had not 
her mother said, 

" Marty, here are your ten pennies. I forgot 
to give them to you yesterday." 

'' There !" thought Marty. " In spite of what 
Miss Agnes said the very last thing, I 've for- 
gotten all about missions. I 've never told 
Evaline a breath about them, and I haven't 
prayed or done anything." 

She got out her box and put in it her tenth, 
and four pennies for a thank-offering for the 



Il6 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

happy time she had been having. She also got 
the list of subjects Miss Walsh had furnished 
her with, and some of her books ; but there was 
no time to read then, for her mother had said 
she might go ta» church with Mr. and Mrs. 
Stokes, and she must get ready. Evaline was 
not at home, her uncle having called the pre- 
vious evening and taken her to spend a couple 
of days at his house. 

There was preaching that Sunday in the 
schoolhouse at Black's Mills, a village between 
four and five miles distant in the opposite direc- 
tion from Riseborough. It was quite a novelty 
to Marty to go so far to church, but it was a 
lovely drive and she enjoyed it extremely. It 
certainly seemed strange to attend service in the 
battered little frame schoolhouse, without any 
organ or choir, and to eat crackers and cheese in 
the wagon on the way home, as Mrs Stokes was 
afraid she would be hungry before their unusu- 
ally late dinner. But Marty was so charmed 
with country life and all belonging to it that she 
considered the whole thing an improvement 
upon city church-going. 

In the afternoon she took her Bible and some 
missionary leaflets, and going into a retired 
place in the garden read and studied for more 
than an hour. The missionary spirit within her 
was fully awake that day. She longed to talk 



A PLAN AND A TALK. 11/ 

with Evaline and could hardly wait until it was 
time for her to come home. But by Tuesday, 
when she did come, Marty's head was full of 
other matters, such as a discovery she had made 
in the wood of a hollow in an old tree which 
would be a lovely playhouse, and an expedition 
to Sunset Hill that was being talked of. So in 
one way or another nearly two weeks of vaca- 
tion had passed before this Missionary Twig, 
who had been so ardent to begin with, had 
redeemed her promise of trying to interest 
somebody in the work. 

But in the meantime she had thought of Jim- 
my Torrence. The way he was brought to her 
mind was this. She was with her mother on the 
side porch, Monday morning, when Mrs. Stokes, 
coming out of the kitchen with floury hands, 
inquired, 

" Mrs. Ashford, did you see the little boy in 
the carriage that just passed 'long?" 

''Yes," replied Mrs. Ashford. 

'' Well, you just ought to have seen him when 
they brought him up here three weeks ago — his 
folks are boarding over at Capt. Smith's ; such a 
pale, peaked child / never saw ! Had been 
awful sick, they said, and now you see he looks 
right down Avell." 

"Why, yes, he does," said Mrs. Ashford. '' I 
should never imagine he had been ill very re-^ 



Il8 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

cently. The country has certainly done him 
good." 

" That 's just it !" said Mrs. Stokes. '' There 's 
nothing like taking children to the country a 
spell after they 've been sick. Makes 'em fat 
and rosy in less than no time." 

'' Oh ! mamma," exclaimed Marty. " That 
makes me think of poor little Jimmy. I wish 
we could do something to get him sent to the 
country." 

^' I wish we could, but I do n't see any way to 
do it. I have given all I can afford this summer 
to the different Fresh- Air Funds." 

" Can't you think of anything, clothes or 
such things, that you were going to get me, and 
that I cou/d do without, and send the money to 
Mrs. Watson?" pleaded Marty. 

'' I can't think of anything just this minute ," 
answered her mother with a gentle smile, '' but 
if you will bring Freddie in out of the hot sun, 
and get something to amuse him near here, I '11 
try to think." 

" Oh ! do, please. And mind, mamma, it 
must be something for me to do without — not 
you." 

Marty ran down the yard to where Fred- 
die, with red face and without his hat, was 
rushing up and down playing he was a " little 



A PLAN AND A TALK. 1 19 

''Freddie," she called, ''don't you want to 
come and make mud pies?" 

This was a favorite amusement of the small 
boy, and instantly the little engine subsided into 
a baker. Marty led him up near the porch, 
where there was a nice bed of mould — " clean 
dirt," Mrs. Stokes called it — and they were soon 
hard at work on the pies. 

Marty enjoyed this play as much as Freddie, 
and it was some time before she thought of ask- 
ing, 

" Mamma, have you thought of anything 
yet?" 

Mrs. Ashford smiled and nodded. 

" What is it ?" exclaimed Marty, bounding up 
on the porch. 

" I do n't know whether you will like the plan 
or not, but it is the only thing that occurs to me. 
Your school coat will be too short for you next 
winter, and I was going to get you a new one. 
But the old one could be altered so that you 
might wear it. I have some of the material, and 
could piece the skirt and sleeves and trim it 
with braid. As it always was a little too large 
for you about the shoulders, it would fit next 
winter well enough that way. Doing that would 
save about five dollars as near as I can calculate." 

" Then we should have five dollars for Jim- 
my?" 



120 A MISSIONARY TWIG, 

''Yes." 

'' But would it be much trouble to you to alter 
the coat?" 

'' It would be some trouble, but I am willing 
to take that for my share." 

" Oh ! then let 's do it," cried Marty. 

'' Wait, wait," said her mother. '' You must 
think it over first. You know when you do 
things in a hurry, sometimes you regret them 
afterwards." 

*' I know I sha' n't regret this," Marty pro- 
tested ; " but I '11 go and think a while." 

She went and sat down on her last batch of 
pies, resting her head on her knees, with her 
eyes shut. In a very short space of time she 
was back at her mother's side. 

" Oh ! you have not thought long enough," 
said Mrs. Ashford. " I meant for a day or two." 

" There 's no use thinking any longer, for I 
know I '11 think just the same. I 've thought all 
about how the coat will look when it 's pieced, 
and how all the girls will know it 's pieced, and 
how I 'd a great deal rather have one that isn't 
pieced. Then I thought how pale and sick Jim- 
my looks, and how much he wants to go to the 
country, and how much good it would do him to 
go, and how he has no nice times as I have, 
and, I declare, I 'd rather wear pieced coats all 
the rest of my life than not have him go." She 



A PLAN AND A TALK. 121 

winked her eyes very hard to keep back the 
tears. 

''Very well," said Mrs. Ashford, stroking the 
little girl's flushed cheek, ''we will consider it 
settled. I will write to Mrs. Watson this after- 
noon, inclosing the money, and telling her about 
Jimmy." 

By Saturday a reply came from Mrs. Watson 
saying that arrangements had been made to 
send Jimmy to a kind woman in the country, 
who would take good care of him, and it was 
probable the money IMarty had sent would pay 
his board there for nearly three weeks. She 
also said that Jimmy had been very poorly 
again. Dr. Fisher, finding him in Mrs. Scott's 
room one day when he called, had seen how 
miserable the boy was, and had given him medi- 
cine, and had said, when he heard he was going 
to be sent to the country, that it would be just 
the thing, better than any amount of medicine. 
The letter also stated that Mrs. Fisher had fitted 
Jimmy out in some of her little boy's clothes. 
So he would be very comfortable. 

" Could anything be nicer !" exclaimed Marty. 
" I 'm so glad of it all !" 

The same mail that brought Mrs. Watson's 
letter brought Marty's little missionary maga- 
zine, which she always wanted to sit right down 
and read. 



122 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

'' Now," said lier mother, after they had got 
through talking over the letter, " I wish you 
would mind Freddie while I write some letters." 

Marty took her magazine into the back yard 
where Freddie was playing with his wheelbar- 
row under the lilac-bushes. She sat down by 
the big pear-tree to read, though not forgetting 
to keep an eye on her little brother's proceed- 
ings. Missions seemed as interesting as ever as 
she read. Presently she saw Evaline coming 
out of the kitchen with a pail of water and brush 
to scrub the back steps. 

'' Evaline," she called, " when you get through 
your work come down here where I 'm minding 
Freddie, wont you? I want to tell you some- 
thing." 

'' Yes," replied Evaline, ''I '11 come pretty 
soon. This is the last thing I 've got to do." 

She soon came and threw herself on the 
grass beside Marty, who forthwith began show- 
ing her the magazine and telling her in a rather 
incoherent way about mission work in general 
and their band in particular. She told how 
many belonged to the band, what they did at 
the meetings, how much money they had, and 
what they were going to do with it ; how this 
band was only one of hundreds of bands that 
were all connected with a big society ; and how 
the object of the whole thing was to teach the 



A PLAN AND A TALK. 1 23 

heathen in foreign lands about God and try to 
make Christians of them. 

'' That must be the same thing that Ruth 
Campbell was talking so much about a while 
ago," said E valine when Marty stopped, more to 
take breath than because she had nothing fur- 
ther to say. 

''Who's Ruth Campbell? and what was she 
saying?" 

" Why, the Campbells live in that house that 
you can just see the top of from our barn. 
Ruth 's as old as our Almiry, but she knows a 
heap more, for she went to school in Johns- 
burgh. She taught our school last winter, and 
is going to again next. She told us about some- 
thing they have in Johnsburgh, and it sounds 
very much like yours, so it must be a mission- 
band. She said she wished we could have one 
here, but none of us paid much attention to it." 

" Oh, I think you would like it ever so much," 
said Marty ; '' only maybe there would n't be 
enough children round here to make a band," 
she added doubtfully. 

*' How many does it take ?" asked E valine. 

'' Oh, bands are of different sizes. I s'pose 
you con/dmsike one of four or five." 

" There 's a sight more children than that on 
the mountain," said E valine with some con- 
tempt. " But then some of 'em might n't want 



124 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

to send their money away to the heathen ; and 
anyhow, I don't know where they'd get any 
money to send. Folks up here, 'specially chil- 
dren, don't have much." 

"Why, I thought the country was just the 
place to make money for missions," cried Marty. 
"There's 'first-fruits' and such things that are 
a great deal easier got at in the country than in 
town. And I have heard of children raising 
missionary com and potatoes, and having mis- 
sionary hens that laid the very best kind of eggs 
regularly every day, that brought a high price." 

" Yes, but who 's going to buy the things up 
here ? Folks all have their own corn and pota- 
toes and hens. And how 'd we children get a 
few little things miles and miles to market?" 

Marty was rather taken aback by this view 
of the subject. " The children I read about got 
somebody to buy their things," she said. 

She w^as rather discouraged because Evaline 
was not more enthusiastic about missions, and 
thought there was no use trying to further the 
cause in this region; but fortunately she hap- 
pened to tell Almira what they had been talking 
of, and she took up the subject as warmly as 
Marty could wish, saying she thought it would 
be very nice to have a missionary circle of some 
sort. 

" Ruth has talked to me about it," she said. 



A PLAN AND A TALK. 1 25 

''and I promised to help, but we can't seem to 
get the children interested." 

" Are n't there a/iy interested, not even 
enough to begin with ?" inquired Marty. 

''Well, there are Ruth's two brothers and 
sister, and I think Joe and Maria Pratt, who 
live just beyond Campbell's, might be talked 
into it. Then there 's Eva, but she does n't 
seem to care much about it." 

" I care a great deal more since I heard Marty 
tell about her band," Evaline declared, "and I 
wouldn't mind belonging to something of the 
kind, only I do n't see where I 'd get any money 
to give." 

" We 'd try to manage that," said Almira. 

After that for a few days there was a good 
deal of talk among them all on the subject, and 
some reading aloud afternoons from Marty's 
missionary books. Finally Mrs. Stokes said she 
thought it would be a very good thing for the 
young people in the neighborhood to have a 
society, and proposed that Almira and the little 
girls should go over and spend the next after- 
noon with Ruth, when they could talk the mat- 
ter over. 



126 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE MOUNTAIN MISSION-BAND. 

'' I AM very glad Marty came up here this 
summer, for I do believe, with her to help us, we 
shall get the mission-band started at last," said 
pretty, blue-eyed Ruth Campbell, after they had 
all been talking for an hour or so as hard as 
their tongues could go. 

When she had learned what her visitors' 
errand was, she had called her sister and 
brothers and had sent Hugh over for Maria and 
Joe Pratt. Then they had quite a conference on 
the shady porch, Ruth sewing busily all the 
while. 

*' I 'm afraid I can't help much," said Marty. 

" Why, you have helped and are helping ever 
so much. You 've got Evaline all worked up, and 
Maria too, and by telling us what you do in your 
band you have given us many hints for ours." 

" Now, Ruth," said Evaline, ''let 's begin the 
band right away, so that we can have some 
meetings while Marty's here. You must be 
president, of course." 

" Evaline has it all settled," said Ruth, laugh- 
ing. Then turning to Almira she asked, 



THE MOUNTAIN MISSION-BAND. 12/ 

"Which do you think would be best — just 
start a kind of temporary band and wait until 
school opens to organize, or organize now, trust- 
ing to persuade others to join?" 

'' I think it would be best to organize now. 
It will be easier to get them to join a band 
already started than it will be to get them 
stirred up to begin," was Almira's opinion. 

Then she wished to know what they would 
do about her. She wanted to belong, but then 
she was not a child. 

" Do you know of any bsfnd, Marty, that has 
both children and young ladies?" she asked. 

" No," replied Alarty. '' In our church the 
young ladies have a band themselves." 

" But this is n't a church band ; it 's a neigh- 
borhood band," Ruth interposed; ''and as we 
have n't many folks up here, I think it will be 
well not to divide our forces, but to include all 
in one organization. Of course Almira must 
belong. I think, though, before organizing we 
had better see and invite some of the other 
neighbors. Effie, couldn't you and Maria go 
over to McKay's and see what they think of it?" 

Effie, a gentle girl of thirteen, just as pretty 
and blue-eyed as her sister, thought she could. 

Joe Pratt said he knew a boy he thought 
might come. 

"How about the Smiths, Evaline? Do you 



128 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

think any of them would be interested?" Ruth 
inquired. 

''Sophy might," Evaline replied rather doubt- 
fully. 

"Well, you see her, wont you? They are 
not far from you." 

It was finally resolved that as everybody was 
so busy through the week during this harvesting 
season, a meeting should be held the next Sun- 
day afternoon. The place chosen was a grove 
which was just half way between Mr. Stokes' 
and Mr. Campbell's. If, however, the day was 
not suitable for an out-door meeting, they were 
to assemble in Mr. Stokes' barn, a fine, new 
affair, much handsomer than his house, and 
occupying a commanding situation from which 
there was a beautiful view. 

When everything was settled the children 
ran off to play, and Almira helped Ruth and her 
mother to get supper. 

The next Sunday was a lovely day, not too 
warm, and the meeting in the grove was a 
decided success. Altogether there were four- 
teen present, though two were visitors, Marty 
and one of Capt. Smith's summer boarders, who 
came with Cophy. Ruth had a nice little pro- 
gramme made out, and after the exercises they 
organized. Ruth was elected president, Almira, 
for the present, secretary, and Hugh Campbell, 



THE MOUNTAIN MISSION-BAND. 1 29 

treasurer. They decided as long as the weather 
remained pleasant to meet every Sunday after- 
noon. In winter, of course, they could not get 
together so frequently. 

They had already had, and continued to have, 
many discussions about ways of earning their 
missionary money. One thing the boys thought 
of was to gather berries and sell them to the 
people in the valleys, mountain blackberries 
being esteemed very delicious. There would be 
plenty of work about that — first climbing the 
heights and then carrying their burdens for 
miles. 

Ruth was so much taken with Marty's plan 
of making tenths the basis of what she gave to 
missions that she concluded to adopt the same 
plan. 

''That's easy enough for you," said Almira. 
"You have your salary and half the butter- 
money, but I have no income. You know we 
do n't sell much butter. I '11 have to think of 
some other way to earn a little money." 

" Well, do hurry and think what we can do, 
Almira," said E valine fretfully. She depended 
on her sister always to do the thinking. " I 'm 
afraid we wont have anything to give." 

"I am thinking," said Almira. 

The result was she asked her father if he 
would let her and Evaline have a strip of the 

A Misisionarj Twi^'. ^ 



I30 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

field adjoining the garden next summer, where 
they might raise vegetables. When he con- 
sented she asked Mrs. Button at the hotel if she 
would buy these vegetables. To this Mrs. But- 
ton, who knew the good quality of everything 
from the Stokes farm, and what a "capable" 
girl Almira was, readily agreed. 

"There now, Eva," said Almira, ''by weed- 
ing and gathering vegetables you can earn your 
missionary money." 

" But, Almira," said Marty, " how will you 
ever get the things down to the hotel ?" 

'' Well, the evenings Hiram has to go to 
Trout Run to meet the market train, he can 
take my baskets for the next day along. Other 
days, if I can't do any better, I can harness 
Nelly and take them down in the morning 
myself before she is needed in the fields." 

'* You 'd have to get up awfully early." 

''Oh, yes!" said Almira, laughing. "I'll 
have to get up about three o'clock, I suppose, to 
have the things ready in time." 

" Three o'clock !" exclaimed Marty in dismay. 

" There 's going to be plenty of hard work 
about your missionary money, Almira," said 
Mrs. Ashford. 

"Oh, I'm willing to do the work," replied 
Almira. " From all Ruth says, it is a cause 
worth working for." 



'THE MOUNTAIN MISSION-BAND. I31 

"Yes; but all that wont be till next sum- 
mer — a year off," objected Evaline. " How are 
we going to get any money sooner?" 

But Almira had another plan. 

" Father," she said, one evening, " instead of 
hirinor an extra hand this fall to sort and barrel 
apples, wont you let Evaline and me do it, and 
pay us the wages?" 

" Do you think you could do as much work as 
a man?" inquired the farmer good-humoredly. 

" I '11 back Almiry for fast and good work 
against any man / ever saw," said Hiram em- 
phatically. 

Mr. Stokes laughed quietly. " Well," he said, 
" 'twill be hard work, with all else you have to 
do, but I 'm willing you should try." 

" I can do it," Almira answered determinedly. 

After another spell of thinking she said to 
Evaline, " We might raise some turkeys next 
summer. They bring a good price." 

" Oh, turkeys are such a bother !" cried Eva- 
line. " They take so much running after — al- 
ways going where they might get hurt." 

She had had some experience in minding 
young turkeys. 

" But just think of the money we 'd have," 
Almira reminded her. '' And you know we '11 
have to work for our missionary money some- 
how." 



132 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

'' That 's so," said Evaline, wlio was not fond 
of work. " It might as well be turkeys as any- 
thing else." 

'' Mamma," said Marty one morning, " Hiram 
says he 'd like to join the band. But a great big 
man can't belong to a mission-band, can he ?" 

" He might be an honorary member," sug- 
gested Mrs. Ashford. 

" What sort of a member is that?" 

" He could attend the meetings, take part in 
the exercises, and contribute money, but he 
could not vote." 

" Well, maybe Hiram would like to join that 
way. S'pose we ask him ;" and off she and Eva- 
line flew in search of Hiram. 

They found him up by the barn. 

" O Hiram !" said Marty. " I just now told 
mamma about your wanting to join the mission- 
band, and she says you might join as an honorary 
member." 

Hiram stuck his pitchfork in the ground, 
rested his hands on the top of it, and his chin on 
his hands. 

** What's that kind of a member got to do?" 
he asked slowly. 

*^ You may give money, but you can't vote," 
Marty instructed him. 

Hiram thought over it a good while, and then 
said very gravely, though his eyes twinkled, 



THE MOUNTAIN MISSION-BAND. 1 33 

" Well, I guess giving money 's the main 
thing after all, isn't it? I reckon I'll join if 
you '11 let me." 

" We '11 be ever so glad to have you," said 
Marty warmly. She felt as if it was partly her 
band, and was interested in seeing it growing 
and flourishing. 

They were nearly back to the house when 
Evaline suddenly stopped, exclaiming, 

'* You never told him he might come to the 
meetings!" 

'* Neither I did ! How came I to forget that ! 
We must go right back and tell him." 

When they reached the barn again, they saw 
Hiram at the foot of the hill, just entering the 
next field; but hearing the girls shouting, *' Hi- 
ram ! Hiram !" and seeing them running to over- 
take him, he strode back across the fence, and 
seated himself on the top rail to wait for them. 

'' I forgot a most important thing," said 
Marty, panting for breath. " Mamma says hon- 
orary members may attend the meetings." 

"Maybe I hadn't better attend them," said 
Hiram with a quizzical look. ** I might want to 
vote." 

" Oh, do you think you should?" asked Marty 
anxiously. 

Hiram bit off a piece of straw and chewed it, 
slowly moving his head from side to side, ap- 



134 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

pearing to meditate profoundly, while the little 
girls waited in suspense. 

" Well," he said, after he had apparently 
thought the matter over, " I suppose I can hold 
up from voting ; and I reckon you can count on 
me to come." 

And come he did, the very next Sunday, ap- 
pearing to take great interest in the proceedings. 



A FLOWER SALE. . 1 35 



CHAPTER XVI. 

A FLOWER SALE. 

"Oh, look! Look over there!" exclaimed 
Marty. ''What are those lovely white flowers?" 

" Wild clematis," replied E valine. 

" O Hiram, wont you please stop and let us 
get some?" pleaded Marty. ''I'd like so much 
to take some to mamma." 

Hiram was obliged to go to Black's Mills on 
an errand that morning, and Marty and Evaline 
had been allowed to go with him for the ride. 
Returning he had driven around by another 
road, as he said one of the horses had lost a 
shoe, and this road, though longer, was less 
stony, and therefore easier for the horse than 
the other. Besides it would take them by 
McKay's blacksmith-shop, where he could get 
the horse shod. 

It was when going through a valley, which 
the country folks called " the bottom," that they 
saw the clematis. It was growing in the great- 
est profusion in the meadows and the woods on 
both sides of the road, rambling over bushes, 
rocks, fences, everything, with its great starry 
clusters of white blossoms. 



136- A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

'' I don't think you had better go after any," 
said Hiram in reply to Marty's request. " Them 
low places are muddy after the rain yesterday, 
and your ma might be angry if you was to go 
home with your shoes all muddied. Besides, 
there 7naj/ be snakes under them bushes." 

"Snakes! Oh, dear!" said Marty with a 
shudder. *' But I should like some of those 
flowers for mamma." 

"Well," said Hiram, reining in the horses, "if 
you promise to sit still in the wagon and not be 
up to any of your tricks of climbing in and out, 
I '11 get you some." 

" Oh, thank you ever so much ! I '11 sit as 
still as a mouse. But then I should n't like the 
snakes to bite you." 

" I reckon they wont bite me," said Hiram, as 
he leaped over the fence, and taking out his 
knife proceeded to cut great clusters of flowers. 

"Oh, just see the loads he is getting!" cried 
Marty. 

Then as Hiram returned with a huge arm- 
ful which he carefully laid in the back of the 
wagon, she said, "Thank you many times, 
Hiram. You are very kind. How pleased 
mamma will be! But half these are yours, 
Evaline." 

After this they had what was to Marty the 
pleasure of fording a small stream, where the 



A FLOWER SALE. 1 37 

horses were allowed to stop and drink. Pres- 
ently they had a distant view of a cascade, called 
Buttermilk Falls. As the road did not approach 
very near, only a glimpse could be caught of the 
creamy foam ; but Hiram said that some day, if 
Mr. Stokes could spare him, he would drive 
them all down to that point, and they could 
walk from there to the falls. 

'' I reckon Mrs. Ashford would like to see 
'em," he said. 

''Indeed she would," said Marty. 

Altogether the drive was what Marty con- 
sidered "just perfectly lovely." And she was 
delighted also to be able to go home with such 
quantities of pretty flowers. She was already 
planning with Evaline what vases and pitchers 
they should put them in. " How surprised the 
folks will be when they see us coming in with 
our arms full !" she said. 

When they reached a little wood back of Mr. 
Stokes' barn, Hiram stopped the horses, saying, 

" Now, I 've got to go 'round to McKay's, and 
may have to wait there a considerable spell, so 
you'd better just hop out here and go home 
through the woods." 

He helped them out, gave them the flowers, 
and drove on. The girls sat down under a tree 
and divided the spoils. Marty contrived to 
make a basket of her broad-brimmed brown 



133 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

straw hat, in which she carefully placed her 
flowers. E valine's basket was her gingham 
apron held up by the corners. 

When they came within sight of the grove 
where their missionary meetings had been held, 
Evaline whispered, 

''Look, Marty! there are some ladies sitting 
on our log." 

Sure enough, there were three young ladies, 
evidently resting after a mountain climb, for 
their alpenstocks w^ere lying beside them, and 
one, a bright, black-eyed girl w^earing a stylish 
red jacket, was fanning herself with her broad 
hat. As Marty and Evaline drew near this 
young lady called out gayly, 

"Well, little flower girls, Avhere did you come 
from?" 

" We 've been to Black's Mills in the 
wagon with Hiram, and when we were coming 
through the bottom he got this clematis for us," 
explained Marty, who always had to be spokes- 
man. 

" And it is beautiful !" exclaimed the young 
lady. ''What wouldn't I give for some like it! 
Did Hiram leave any or did he gather all for 
you?" 

" Oh, there 's plenty left !" 

" Then I must have some," said the young 
lady, jumping up. "Come, girls, follow your 



A FLOWER SALE. 



139 



leader to this bottom, wherever it is, and let us 
gather clematis w^hile \\e may." 

'' Fanny, Fanny, you crazy thing ! Sit down 
and behave yourself," cried one of her friends, 
laughing. '' You have no idea where the place 
is, and w^e have been walking for three or four 
hours already." 

"Oh, you can't go," said Marty earnestly to 
Miss Fanny. '' It 's miles and miles away ; 
down steep hills and across the ford. Besides, 
Hiram says there may be snakes among the 
bushes." 

"Well, that settles it," said Miss Fanny, 
reseating herself on the log, while the others 
laughed heartily. 

Then Marty said wdth pretty hesitation, 
" Wont you have some of my flowers ? I'd like 
to give you some." 

"Some of mine, too," said Evaline, her gen- 
erosity overcoming her shyness. 

"Oh, no, indeed!" protested Aliss Fanny. 
" Thank you very much, but I would not for the 
world deprive you of them. Very likely you 
have got it all arranged exactly how you are 
going to dispose of them at home." 

So they had, but neither of them was a bit 
selfish. Marty had already placed her hat on 
the end of the log and w^as busily engaged in 
separating a large bunch of flowers from the 



140 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

rest, and Evaline, approaching the young ladies, 
held out her apronful towards them. 

" Perhaps," suggested the tall, fair girl, whom 
her companions called "Dora," ''perhaps you 
would be willing to play you are real flower girls 
and would sell us some." 

*'Yes, yes," exclaimed Miss Fanny, ''let us 
make a play of it. Little girls, how much are 
your flowers?" and she drew forth a long blue 
purse. 

" ' T would be mean to sell what did n't cost 
us anything, and what we did n't have to move 
a finger to get," said Marty. " I 'd a great deal 
rather you would let me give you as many as 
you want." 

" No, it would not be mean at all when you 
are giving up w^hat you have so much pleasure 
in. It would only be fair to take something in 
exchange," said Miss Fanny. " Just think !" she 
added persuasively, " is n't there something 
you 'd each like to have a quarter for?" 

Marty still held out against taking money for 
the flowers, but all at once Evaline exclaimed 
brightly, "Oh, the mission-band!" 

" Mission-band !" cried Miss Fanny. " Fa- 
miliar sound ! Are you mission girls ?" 

"Yes," they said. 

" Why, so are we all. We must shake hands 
all around." 



A FLOWER SALE. I4I 

They did so, laughing, and feeling like old 
friends. Then in ten minutes' chatter the young 
ladies told what cities they were from and what 
bands they belonged to, found out about Marty's 
home band, and the newly-formed mountain 
band she took such an interest in, and which 
Evaline persisted in saying Marty started. 
They were particularly delighted in hearing 
about this last ; they thought it highly romantic 
that the meetings were held in that lovely grove, 
and were amused by the idea of meeting in the 
barn in case of rain, and also of Hiram's con- 
senting to join as an honorary member. 

" Now," said Miss Fanny,. " you will agree to 
sell some of your flowers, wont you? See how 
nicely it all fits in — we want some flowers very 
much, and you want some money for your mis- 
sion work. So it 's a fair exchange. Girls," she 
said, turning to her frinds, "you know this is 
Mrs. Thurston's birthday. Would n't it be love- 
ly if we could have about half this clematis to 
decorate her room with?" 

Marty declared if she was going to give them 
a quarter apiece, she must take all, or most of 
the flowers, instead of half. After much talk 
it was finally arranged that the little girls were 
each to keep what Miss Fanny called '' a good 
double-handful," and the rest was handed over to 
the young ladies. 



142 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

** This is my first missionary money," said 
Evaline, caressing her bright silver quarter in 
delight. 

Marty, also, appeared very well pleased with 
the unexpected increase to her store. 

Before separating Miss Fanny proposed an- 
other plan. She had already stated that she and 
her friends were staying at the hotel in Rise- 
borough, and had caused Evaline to point out 
w^here she lived. 

" Day after to-morrow," said Miss Fanny, '' a 
party of five or six of us are going to take a 
drive to see some falls, and coming back we pass 
right by your house. We shall probably be 
along towards the close of the afternoon. Now 
could n't you be on the lookout for us, and have 
some more missionary clematis for sale ?" 

*' It doesn't grow very near here," said Eva- 
line, " and I do n't believe Hiram would have 
time to take us to the bottom again after any. 
He 's busy harvesting." 

/'Of course I do n't wish you to go to so much 
trouble about it ; but cannot you get us flowers 
of some kind near here — in some of these 
woods?" 

Evaline, who was anxious for more mission- 
ary money, said she thought there were still 
some cardinal flowers down in the glen, and 
Miss Fanny said they would be the very thing. 



A FLOWER SALE. I43 

" And then it would be more like earning the 
missionary m^oney if we had to work ourselves to 
get the flowers," said Marty. 

'* You have been brought up in the orthodox 
school, I see," said Miss Fanny, and all the young 
ladies laughed. 

After many last words and kindly adieus, 
they parted, and the children ran home to relate 
their adventures. 



144 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 



CHAPTER XVII 



WEEDING. 



When the plan for Thursday was announced, 
both Mrs. Ashford and Mrs. Stokes objected to 
the little girls going so far into the woods by 
themselves ; and nobody could go with them. 

'' Then we '11 have no flowers for the ladies," 
sighed Marty. 

'' And no more missionary money," added 
Evaline. 

" Why not give them flowers out of the gar- 
den?" said Mrs. Stokes. '' Sakes alive! there's 
plenty there. And they 're just the kind I 've 
seen city folks going crazy over. Some of the 
hotel folks were up here last summer, and deary 
me! but they did make a to-do over my lark- 
spur, sweet-william, china pinks, candytuft, 
cockscomb, and such. You just give the ladies 
some of 'em, and they '11 be pleased enough ; for 
there 's hardly any flowers in Riseborough — too 
shady, I guess." 

** That 's all well enough for Evaline," said 
Mrs. Ashford, "but Marty has no right to sell 
your flowers." 

''She has if I give 'em to her, hasn't she? 



WEEDING. 145 

I 'm sure she 's welcome to every bloom in the 
garden to do what she pleases with. Not that I 
want my flowers sold ; I 'd rather give 'em to 
the ladies, but as long as it is for mission 
work — " and the good woman finished with a 
little nod. 

But Mrs. Ashford still objected to Marty's 
taking the flowers, and Evaline would not have 
anything to do with the scheme unless Marty 
could " go halves." 

" Dear Mrs. Stokes," said Marty, " can't you 
think of some way I could work for the flowers, 
and then mamma would n't object to my taking 
them?" 

'' Well, I '11 tell you. The gravel walk 'round 
the centre bed is pretty tolerable weedy, and if 
you and Evaline '11 weed it out nice and clean, 
you may have all the flowers you want all sum- 
mer." 

That satisfied all parties, and the weeding 
began that afternoon. When Marty was going 
to do anything she always wanted to get at it 
right away. Besides Almira advised them to do 
some that afternoon. 

'' Then maybe you can finish it up to-morrow 
morning before the sun gets 'round there," she 
said. " This is a very good time to do it too — 
just after the rain." 

The girls were armed with old knives — not 

• A Missionary Twig. JO 



146 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

very sharp ones — to dig out the weeds with, if 
they would not come with pulling. 

" You must be sure to get them up by the 
roots," said Almira, " or they '11 grow again be- 
fore you know where you are." 

*' Oh, we are going to do it good^' Marty de- 
clared. 

They divided the walk into sections, and set 
to work vigorously. In a few moments Marty 
remarked complacently, 

'' The bottom of my basket is quite covered 
with weeds. But then," she added in a different 
tone, '' I do n't see where they came from. I 
hardly miss them out of the walk." 

A few moments more of quiet work, and she 
called out, 

^' E valine, are many of your weeds in tigJit f " 

"Awful tight," answered Evaline disconso- 
lately. " They 've got the longest roots of any 
weeds / ever saw. 'T would take a week of rain 
to make this walk fit to weed." 

" Well," said Marty, '' of course it is n't just 
as easy as taking a quarter for some clematis 
that was given to us in the first place, but as it is 
for missions I think we ought to be willing to do 
it, even if it is a little hard." 

'' That 's so," Evaline replied, brightening up. 

'' And I 'm very glad your mother thought of 
this," Marty went on, ''for it would be dreadful 



WEEDING. 147 

disappointing not to have any flowers for the 
ladies when they come, and not to get any more 
missionary money." 

Again Evaline agreed with her, and the work 
went on. 

In about half an hour there was quite a large 
clean patch, and much encouraged by seeing the 
progress they were making, they worked more 
diligently than ever. Then Marty had a senti- 
mental idea that it might help them along to 
sing a missionary hymn, but found upon trial 
that it was more of a hindrance than a help. 

'■' I can't sing when I 'm all doubled up this 
way," she said, " and anyway when I find a very 
tough weed I have to stop singing and pull. 
Then I forget what comes next." 

" I guess it 's better to work while you work 
and sing afterward,' was Evaline's opinion. 

Here they heard somebody laughing, and 
looking up saw Mrs. Ashford, who had come out 
to see how they were getting on. 

'' I think Evaline is about right," she said ; 
" singing and weeding do n't go together very 
well. But how nicely you have been doing ! 
Why, you are nearly half through !" 

''Yes, ma'am," said Evaline, ''and the other 
side of the circle a'n't half so bad as this was. 
We '11 easy get it done to-morrow morning." 

"Yes; and, mamma," cried Marty, "we've 



148 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

got them out good. I do n't believe there '11 
ever be another weed here !" 

" They '11 be as bad as ever after a while," 
said Evaline, who knew them of old. 

Marty was pretty tired that evening and did 
not feel like running about as much as usual. 

'' There now !" exclaimed Mrs. Stokes, looking 
at Marty as she sat on the porch steps after sup- 
per leaning back against her mother, ''there 
now ! you 're all beat out. 'T was too hard work 
for you. I ought n't to have let you do it." 

''Oh! indeed, Mrs. Stokes, I 'm not so very 
tired," cried Marty, ""'and I w^as glad to do it." 

Another hour's work the next morning fin- 
ished the weeding, and the girls reflected with 
satisfaction that they had earned their flowers. 
Mrs. Stokes said the work was done " beautiful," 
and Hiram, who was brought to inspect it, said 
they had done so well that he had a great mind 
to have them come down to the field and hoe 
corn. 

Thursday morning early they gathered and 
put in water enough flowers for seven fair-sized 
bouquets, thinking they had better have one 
more than Miss Fanny mentioned in case an 
extra lady came. By four o'clock these flow- 
ers — and how lovely and fragrant they were ! — 
with Mrs. Ashford's valuable assistance were 
made into tasteful bouquets, placed on an old 



WEEDING. . 149 

tray with their stems lightly covered with wet 
moss, and set in the coolest corner of the porch. 
The children, including- Freddie, all nicely 
dressed, took up position on the steps, partly to 
keep guard over the flowers and prevent Ponto 
from lying down on them, and partly to watch 
for their callers. 

IMarty's bright eyes were the first to see the 
carriages. 

''There they come around the bend!" she 
exclaimed, and shortly a carryall driven by Jim 
Button, and containing three ladies and two 
children, followed by a buck-board wherein 
wsat Miss Fanny and Miss Dora, drew up at the 
gate. 

Evaline's shyness came on in full force and 
she hung back, but Marty, with Freddie holding 
her hand, proceeded down the walk. They were 
met by Miss Fanny, who had thrown the reins to 
her friend and jumped out the moment the 
horse stopped. She kissed Marty, snatched up 
Freddie, exclaiming, '' What a darling little 
boy!" and called out, ''Come down here, Eva- 
line ! I want to see you." 

Mrs. Stokes, who was too hospitable to see 
people so near her house without inviting them 
in, now came forward to give the invitation, and 
as they were obliged to decline on the score of 
lateness, she called Almira to bring some cool 



150 . A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

Spring water for them. Seeing Freddie ap- 
proaching dangerously near one of the horses, 
Marty cried, " Freddie, Freddie, come away from 
the horse!" and he gravely inquired, "What's 
the matter with the poor old horse ?" 

This made every one laugh and brought Mrs. 
Ashford from the porch to take his hand and 
keep him out of danger. So they were all 
assembled at the roadside, and quite a pleasant, 
lively time they had. 

The flowers were asked for and Evaline 
brought them, while Marty explained why they 
were garden instead of wild flowers, and Mrs. 
Stokes told how the girls earned them. The 
bouquets were extremely admired. When pro- 
posing the plan in the woods, Miss Fanny had 
suggested ''ten-cent" bouquets, but everybody 
said ten cents w^as entirely too cheap for such 
large, beautifully arranged ones, that fifteen 
cents was little enough. There was one com- 
posed entirely of sweet peas, as Mrs. Ashford 
said those delicate flowers looked prettier by 
themselves. This Miss Fanny seized upon, 
insisted on paying twenty cents for, -and pre- 
sented to a pale, sweet-faced lady in mourning. 

She drew Marty to the side of the carriage 
where this lady was, and said in a low voice, 

" Mrs. Thurston, this is the little girl I told 
you of — the Missionary Twig who doesn't 



WEEDING. 151 

leave her missionary zeal at home when she 
goes away in vacation." 

The lady smiled affectionately as she pressed 
Marty's hand, and said, 

'' I am glad to meet such an earnest little 
comrade." 

*'0h! but you don't know," protested Marty. 
" I came very near forgetting the whole thing. 
Indeed, it went out of my head altogether from 
Tuesday till Sunday." 

The ladies laughed, and Miss Fanny said, 

" Mrs. Thurston was a missionary in India 
for many years, Marty, and would be there yet 
if she was able." 

''India!" exclaimed Marty, with wide-open 
eyes. '' In Lahore !" 

She had heard more about Lahore than any 
other place, and to her it seemed like the princi- 
pal city in India. 

''Oh, no!" replied Mrs. Thurston. "Far 
from there, hundreds of miles. Lahore, you 
know, is in Northern India, in the part known 
as the Punjab, while my home was in the ex- 
treme south near a city called Madura. Are you 
especially interested in Lahore?" 

" Yes, ma'am. It 's where our band sends its 
money. We have a school there. That is, we 
pay the teacher. It is one of those little schools 
in a room rented from a poor woman, who does 



152 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

her work in one corner while the school is going 
on, and the teacher is a native." 

"Ah, yes; I understand." 

'' Mrs. C is the missionary who superin- 
tends it, along with a lot of other schools. Do 
you know her?" 

" No, but I have seen her name in the mis- 
sionary papers." 

'' Did you have some of those little schools 
w^hen you were a missionary, Mrs. Thurston?" 
Marty inquired. 

" Yes, I did some school work, but more ze- 
nana work." 

" What is zenana work ?" 

Just then Mrs. Thimston noticed that prepara- 
tions were being made to drive on, so she merely 
replied, 

'' Come down to the village and see me, and 
we will have a good missionary talk." 

" Thank you ever so much," said Marty. '* I 
do hope mamma will let me go." 

Evaline was quite overcome when she learned 
that Mrs. Thurston was a " real live missionary," 
and said, 

" She 's the first one I ever saw. I wonder if 
they 're all as nice as that." 

After comsultation with her mother, Marty 
decided to give half her '' flower money " — which 
altogether amounted to eighty cents — to the 



WEEDING. 153 

mountain band, and keep the other half for the 
home band. " Because, you see, this is all out- 
and-out missionary money ; there 's no tithing to 
be done," she said. 

Evaline never felt so large in her life as she 
did when going to the band meeting the next 
Sunday, with her eighty cents ready to hand to 
Hugh Campbell. 

The Saturday following that memorable 
Thursday, Miss Fanny and Miss Mary again 
presented themselves at the farmhouse, where 
they were welcomed like old friends. After 
some pleasant chat, and a lunch of gingerbread 
and fresh buttermilk, Miss Fanny said, 

" We came this morning chiefly to bring you 
an invitation from Mrs. Thurston. She wants 
you all, or as many as possible, to come to an all- 
day missionary meeting at the hotel next Tues- 
day." 

''All day !" exclaimed Almira. 

" Yes. That sounds formidable, does n't it ?" 
laughed Miss Fanny. " But I '11 tell you about 
it. We are going to sew for a home missionary 
family. You must know that Mrs. Thurston, 
after spending the best part of her life and the 
greater part of her strength in the foreign field, 
still does all, in fact, more than her poor health 
will allow her to do for missions both at home 
and abroad. She heard the other day that a 



154 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

missionary family, acquaintances of liers, in Ne- 
braska, had been burnt out, and lost everything 
but the clothes they had on. She told us about 
them with tears in her eyes, and some of us dis- 
covered she was laying aside some of her own 
clothes for the missionary's wife and planning 
how she could squeeze out a little money — for 
she is not rich by any means — to buy some 
clothes for the children. Well, the result was 
we took up a collection of clothes and money at 
the hotel, and Mrs. Thurston got Mr. Button to 
go to Trout Run and telegraph to the Mission 
Board that this missionary is connected with 
that we would send a box of things in a few days 
that will keep the family going until some 
church can send them a good large box." 

'' But how will you know what kind of gar- 
ments to send?" asked Mrs. Ashford. '' I mean, 
what sizes ?" 

"Mrs. Thurston knows all about how many 
children there are, and their ages, so we can 
guess at their sizes." 

Mrs. Ashford, discovering there was a little 
girl near Freddie's age, and as he was, of course, 
yet in ''girl's clothes," said she could spare a 
couple of his suits, having brought an ample 
supply. Some of Marty's clothes also were 
found available. 

" We have had some things given us for the 



WEEDING. 155 

lady," said Miss Fanny, '' a wrapper, a jersey, a 
cashmere skirt, a shawl ; also two or three chil- 
dren's dresses. We have bought nearly all the 
muslin in Mv. Sims' store, with some flannel and 
calico. He is going to Johnsburgh Monday, and 
will get us shirts for the missionary, stockings, 
and such things. Monday is to be a grand cut- 
ting-out day. Tuesday we are to have three 
sewing-machines. Several of the village ladies 
are coming to help, and we shall be very glad if 
some of you will come. Mrs. Thurston particu- 
larly desires that the little girls shall come." 

'' Oh, do let us go," Marty said, while E valine 
looked it. 

Mrs. Ashford could not leave Freddie, and it 
was not possible for both Mrs. Stokes and Almira 
to go, so it was settled that the latter, the little 
girls, and Ruth Campbell, whom Miss Fanny 
wished Almira to invite, should walk down pretty 
early in the morning, and Hiram should bring 
the light wagon for them in the evening. 



i;6 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE HOTEL MISSIONARY MEETING. 

" It was an elegant sewing-meeting," Marty 
confided to her mother when she got home 
Tuesday evening, " and it was n't a bit like that 
one Annt Henrietta had the last time we were in 
Rochester. I liked this one best. There, you 
know, the ladies came all dressed up, carrying 
little velvet or satin work-bags, and we just had 
thin bread and butter and such things for tea — 
nothing very good. Here some of the ladies— 
of course I mean the ones from the village — 
came in calico dresses and sun-bonnets. And 
they were so free and easy — sewed fast and 
talked fast while they were there ; and then if 
they had to go home a little bit, they 'd just pop 
on their bonnets and off they 'd go. Mrs. Clark- 
son thought it was going to rain, and she ran 
home to take in her wash, and another lady went 
home two or three times to see how her dinner 
was getting on. 

" Some of them stayed at the hotel to dinner, 
and all that did stay brought something with 
them, pies mostly, though some brought pick- 
les, preserves, and frosted cake. And every 



THE HOTEL MISSIONARY MEETING. 1 5/ 

time Mrs. Button saw something being smug- 
gled througli the hall she 'd call out, 

" ^ Now I told you not to bring anything. The 
dinner is my part of this missionary meeting.' 

"Then they'd all laugh. They were all real 
kind and pleasant. And such a dinner! I do 
believe we had some of everything. And supper 
was just the same way." 

The hotel, though the boast of the surround- 
ing country, was a very plain establishment, 
being nothing more than a tolerably large, sim- 
ply furnished frame house accommodating about 
forty persons. But it was bright and home-like 
and beautifully situated. 

''Mrs. Thurston's meeting," as they called it, 
was held in the large, uncarpeted dining-room, 
and the dinner tables were set in the shady back 
yard. 

The sewing-room was a busy scene, with 
Miss Dora and two other ladies making the 
machines whir and groups of workers getting 
material ready for the machines or ''finishing 
off." Mrs. Thurston, appealed to from all sides, 
quietly directed the work, while Miss Fanny was 
here, there, and everywhere, helping everybody. 
Almira heard, in the course of the day, that Miss 
Fanny was quite wealthy, that she had con- 
tributed a great deal towards getting up the box, 
and was going to pay the freight. 



158 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

There were several children besides Marty 
and Evaline. They were employed to run 
errands, pass articles from one person to 
another, and fold the smaller pieces of clothing 
as they were completed. As the day wore on 
and the novelty of the thing wore off, most of 
the children got tired and went out to play ; but 
Marty, though she ran out a few minutes occa- 
sionally, spent most of the time in the work- 
room, keeping as close as possible to Mrs. 
Thurston, to whom she had taken a great fancy. 

Soon after dinner Miss Fanny came to Mrs. 
Thurston and said, 

'' Now, Mrs. Thurston, if you do n't get out of 
this commotion a while you will have one of 
your bad headaches. Do go out in the air. We 
can get on without you for an hour." 

So Mrs. Thurston took Marty and went into 
the grove back of the house, and it was while 
sitting there on a rustic seat, with the magnifi- 
cent view spread out before them, that they had 
their missionary talk. 

Mrs. Thurston described her home in South- 
ern India, and spoke of the kind of work she 
and her husband did there — how he preached 
and taught in the city and surrounding villages ; 
how she instructed children in the schools, and 
visited the ignorant women, both rich and poor, 
in their homes. Often, when not able to leave 




A Missionary Twi.s?. Page i.sS. 



THE HOTEL MISSIONARY MEETING. 1 59 

home on account of her children, she had classes 
of poor women in her compound, as the yards 
around the houses in India are called. She also 
spent a good deal of time giving her servants 
religious instruction. 

'' You know," she said, *' it is very, very hot 
there, and we Americans can only endure the 
heat by being very careful. At best we some- 
times get sick, and we must do all we can to 
save ourselves up to teach and preach. That 's 
what we go there for. If we should cook or do 
any work of that kind, we should die; so we 
employ the natives, who are accustomed to the 
heat, to do these things for us. Then, these ser- 
vants will each do only one kind of work. That 
is, the sweeper wont do any cooking or washing ; 
the man who buys the food and waits on the 
table wont do anything else." 

'' That 's very queer," said Marty. 

*' Yes, but it is their way. So we are obliged 
to have several servants. But then the wages 
are very low. Altogether it does not cost any 
more, perhaps not as much, as one good girl 
would in this country. They are a great deal of 
trouble, too. They are not, as a rule, very hon- 
est or faithful, and they have, of course, all the 
heathen vices, and sometimes we have much 
worry with them. But what I was going to say 
is, that we do our best to teach these servants 



l6o A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

about God. We used to have them come in to 
prayers every day, and on Sunday I would col- 
lect them on the veranda and try to teach them 
verses of Scripture, which I would explain over 
and over again. On these occasions a good 
many poor, lame, blind people from the neigh- 
borhood would also come. These people were 
so densely ignorant that it was hard to make 
them understand anything, but in some cases I 
think the light did get into their minds." 

Then Mrs. Thurston told of the death of her 
three dear little children, and Marty felt very, 
very sorry for her when she spoke of the three 
little graves in that distant land. 

"Haven't you any living children?" she 
asked. 

" Yes, two. One of my sons is a missionary 
in Ceylon, and the other, with whom I live, is a 
minister in New York State." 

Then, it appeared, after many years of labor 
in that hot climate, the health of both Mr. and 
Mrs. Thurston broke down, and they were 
obliged to leave the work they loved and come 
back to America. In a short time Mr. Thurston 
died. 

Marty found out, somewhat to her surprise, 
that the ''big society " her band was connected 
with was not the only one. Mrs. Thurston 
belonged to an entirely different one, and the 



THE HOTEL MISSIONARY MEETING. l6l 

young ladies, Fanny, Dora, and Mary, to still 
another. 

''You see we belong to different religious 
denominations," said Mrs. Thurston, " and each 
denomination has its own Society or Board." 

"This Nebraska missionary, now," suggested 
Marty, '' I suppose he belongs to your de— what- 
ever it is." 

'' Denomination," said Mrs. Thurston, smiling. 
" No, he belongs to yours." 

" Yet you are all working for him !" exclaimed 
Marty. 

. '' Of course. It would not do for these differ- 
ent families of Christians to keep in their own 
little pens all the time and never help each 
other. But as yet it has been found best for 
each denomination to have its own missionary 
society, though there are some Union Societies, 
and perhaps in coming years it may be all 
union." 

'' Now there 's this mountain band," said 
Marty reflectively. '' The people in it are not all 
the same kind. I mean some are Methodists, 
and some are Presbyterians, and the Smiths are 
Baptists. I heard Ruth say she didn't know 
what would be best to do with their money." 

She afterwards heard Ruth consulting Mrs. 
Thurston about the matter, and the latter spoke 
of one of these union societies. Ruth said she 

> Mlgsionary Twig. I I 



1 62 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

would speak to the others and see if they would 
wish to send their funds there. 

By half -past four a great deal of work had 
been done, and the new garments were piled up 
on a table in the corner of the room. Though 
needles were still flying, taking last stitches, the 
hard-driven machines were silent, having run 
out of work, as ]\Iiss Fanny said. In the com- 
parative quiet Ruth was heard singing softly 
over her work. 

"Sing louder, Ruth," said Almira, and Ruth 
more audibly, but still softly, sang, 

" From Greenland's ic}- mountains." 

One voice after another took up the refrain, 
and by the time the second line was reached the 
old hymn was sent forth on the air as a grand 
chorus. The children came up on the porch, the 
girls came out of the kitchen to listen. The 
customers in Sims' store and the loungers around 
the blacksmith's shop stopped talking as the 
sound reached them. 

When the last strains died away, and before 
talking could be resumed, Ruth said, 

*' ]\Iarty, wont you say those verses you said 
at our last band meeting?" 

" I '11 say them if the ladies would like to 
hear them," said Marty, who was not at all 
timid, and knev/ the verses very thoroughly, 



THE HOTEL MISSIONARY MEETING. 1 63 

having recited them at the anniversary of her 
own band. 

The ladies desired very much to hear them, 
and, taking her stand at one end of the room, she 
repeated very nicely those well-known lines be- 
ginning, 

" An aged woman, poor and weak, 
She heard the mission teacher speak ; 
The slowly-rolling tears came down 
Upon her withered features brown : 
' What blessed news from yon far shore ! 
Would I had heard it long before !' " 

" How touching that is !" said one of the hotel 
ladies, and Mrs. Sims was seen to wipe her eyes 
with the pillow-slip she was seaming. 

" Mrs. Thurston," said Miss Fanny, who saw 
that a good start on a foreign missionary meeting 
had been made, and was not willing to let the 
opportunity be lost, ''w^hen you vieve in India 
did you meet many persons who were anxious to 
hear the gospel, or were they mainly indiffer- 
ent?" 

In replying to this question Mrs. Thurston 
told many interesting things that had come 
under her observation, and this led to further 
questions from others, so they had quite a long 
talk on missionary work both in India and other 
countries. Finally one of the boarders asked, 

" Well, do you think the world ever will be 
converted to Christianity?" 



l64 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

''I know it will," replied Mrs. Thurston ; and 
she quoted, '' All the ends of the world shall re- 
member and turn unto the Lord; and all kin- 
dreds of the nations shall worship before thee." 

Fanny. " For it is written. As I live, saith the 
Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every 
tongue shall confess to God." 

Dora. " The earth shall be full of the knowl- 
edge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." 

Ruth. " He shall have dominion also from 
sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of 
the earth." 

'' Dora, Dora," said Miss Fanny, with an im- 
perative little gesture, '' 'Jesus shall reign ' " — 

Miss Dora obediently began to sing, 

"Jesus shall reign where'er the sun 
Does his successive journeys run," 

and was at once joined by the others. 

''Now, dear friends," said Mrs. Thurston, 
when the hymn was finished, "upon this, the 
only occasion we are all likely to be together, 
shall we not unite in asking God to hasten the 
coming of this glorious time, and ask for his 
blessing on our humble attempts to work in this 
cause ?" 

Work was dropped and every head bowed, as 
Mrs. Thurston uttered fervent words of prayer 
that the Lord would fill all their hearts with love 



THE HOTEL MISSIONARY MEETING. 1 6; 



for missions, and that he would permit them to 
do something towards helping in the work. She 
prayed especially for the children who were 
engaged in missionary work, and asked that 
they might have grace given them to devote 
their whole lives to the service of God. 

''Well,'* said Mrs. Clarkson, as she was leav- 
ing, " this has been a right down pleasant meet- 
ing, and I think the last part was just about the 
best." 



1 66 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

CHAPTER XIX. 

THE GARDEN MISSIONARY MEETING. 

Two or three days afterwards Miss Fanny, 
with one of her young friends, came up to tell 
the farmhouse people that the box had gone. 
She said that Mr. Sims had given them a box, 
and had also kindly attended to sending it off. 

The day after the meeting, when Hiram 
went down to the postoffice, Marty and Evaline 
had each sent by him a book for the missionary 
children, and Miss Fanny said that this prompted 
some of the children at the hotel to send books. 

During the remainder of the summer there 
was frequent intercourse between the hotel and 
the farmhouse, and the ''mission workers," par- 
ticularly, learned to love each other very much. 
Marty felt very proud to be numbered among 
these workers, though she was only a ''twig." 
She said, 

" I '11 have a great deal to tell Miss Agnes 
and the girls when I go home — sha' n't I, mam- 
ma?" 

Some new members joined the mountain 
band, and by the last of August it numbered 
twenty-one. Ruth said she wished very much 



THE GARDEN MISSIONARY MEETING. 1 6/ 

that before Mrs. Thurston left they might have 
her meet with the band. She thought they would 
all take greater interest in mission work if they 
could hear something of it from one who had 
spent so many years in the midst of it. Mrs. 
Thurston said she would be very happy to attend 
a meeting and talk with the members. So ar- 
rangements were made to have her do so. 

It would be impossible for her to reach the 
grove, as she could not walk so far, and the drive 
from the hotel to ^Ir. Campbell's was very rough 
and quite long. 

" Mother," said Almira, when they were try- 
ing to settle the matter, ''couldn't we have a 
meeting here? It would be easier for Mrs. 
Thurston to get here, and convenient enough 
for everybody else." 

" Why, of course they may meet here," her 
mother replied. ''Our parlor's a plenty big 
enough to hold 'em." 

"Oh! dear Mrs. Stokes," protested Marty, 
" do n't let us meet in the house when there 's 
so much lovely out-of-doors. That grassy place 
in the garden near the currant-bushes would be 
just an elegant place for a meeting." 

"I vote with Marty for out-of-doors," said 
Ruth. " We '11 have enough times for in-door 
meetings after a while." 

"Suit yourselves," said kind Mrs. Stokes. 



1 68 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

" You 're welcome to any place I 've anything to 
do with." 

''And may some of the rest of us from the 
hotel come?" asked Miss Fanny, who happened 
to be present when this talk was going on. 

" Yes, indeed. The more the — ." Mrs. Stokes 
was just going to say, as she so often did, "the 
more the merrier," when she recollected that it 
would be Sunday and the meeting a religious 
one. But she let them all know she would like 
them to come. Mrs. Ashford and Ruth had 
great difficulty in persuading her not to bake a 
quantity of cake on Saturday and serve refresh- 
ments to the band. 

"You must remember, dear Mrs. Stokes," said 
Ruth, " it is n't a party, and nobody will expect 
anything to eat. Now you must not think of 
going to any trouble." 

" The idee of having a lot of people come to 
your house and not give 'em a bite of any- 
thing !" exclaimed Mrs. Stokes. 

Sunday afternoon chairs were carried out to 
the grassy spot Marty had selected, among 
them a comfortable arm-chair for Mrs. Thurs- 
ton. Marty insisted on farmer Stokes' special 
arm-chair being carried out for him, and with 
the help of Wattie Campbell contrived to get it 
there. Hiram, before he drove down to the 
hotel for the ladies, made a couple of benches of 



THE GARDEN MISSIONARY MEETING. 1 69 

boards placed on kegs. These were for the 
girls. The boys, he said, could sit on the 
ground, and that is where he sat himself. 

Mrs. Thurston brought with her a cloth map 
of India which the young ladies fastened to two 
trees. She also had some photographs of people 
and places in India which were passed around 
among the company. Mr. Stokes was particu- 
larly struck with the beautiful scenery these 
pictures showed. 

'* Well," he said, '' I never knew much about 
India, but I had no idea it was such a hand- 
some place." 

''Oh, yes," said Mrs. Thurston, **the scenery 
in some parts of these tropical countries is very 
fine, the foliage is so luxuriant, the flowers so 
gorgeous, the skies so brilliant. Indeed, a pho- 
tograph only gives the merest hint of the 
beauties." 

She described certain mountain and forest 
views, also some parks and gardens she had 
visited. 

'' Do n't you remember those lines in the 
missionary hymn, Mr. Stokes," Miss Dora 
asked, 

'"Where every prospect pleases, 
And only man is vile'?" 

Mrs. Thurston told them that the people in 
India do not live on farms as many do in this 



170 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

country, but crowd together in towns and vil- 
lages, going out from there to work in the fields. 
She briefly described the large city of Madras, 
with its mingled riches and poverty, its streets 
crowded with all sorts of people, some of them 
with hardly any clothing on, its temples and 
bazaars, or shops. Then she spoke of Madura, 
where her home had been so long. 

It was hard to get her listeners, as they sat in 
this cool, shady garden, fanned by mountain 
breezes, to understand how hot it is in India, es- 
pecially Southern India. They thought the pun- 
kahs, or huge fans, that are in all the churches 
and larger houses, and which a man w^orks 
constantly to cool the air, must be very queer 
contrivances. The idea of having to stay in- 
doors during the middle of the day, keeping 
very still, lying down, perhaps, did not strike 
Mrs. Stokes very favorably. 

" That would n't suit me," she said — " to lie 
down in the daytime and be fanned. I 'd w^ant 
to be up and doing." 

*' I fear even your energy would flag in 
that climate," replied Mrs. Thurston, laughing. 
"Foreigners are obliged to be very careful or 
they could not live there at all. Of course w^e 
missionaries were not idle at the time I speak 
of. We were studying, writing, or making 
arrangements about our work." 



THE GARDEN MISSIONARY iMEETING. 171 

She then told a good deal about the way the 
missionaries work among the people, taking her 
hearers with her in imagination to some of the 
mission-schools, and to the Sunday services 
in the little church where her husband had 
preached. In doing this she repeated a pas- 
sage of Scripture and sang a hymn in the Tamil 
language — the language used in that part of 
India. 

'' Now I will tell you something of zenana 
visiting," she said. 

''Mrs. Thurston," said Ruth, ''wont you 
please first tell us exactly what a zenana is?" 
Ruth knew herself, but she was afraid some of 
the others did not. 

" The word zenana," replied Mrs. Thurston, 
"strictly means women's apartment, but as it is 
generally used by us it means the houses of 
the high caste gentlemen, where their wives live 
in great seclusion. These high caste women 
very seldom go out, except occasionally to wor- 
ship at some temple. They live, as we would 
say, at the back of the house, their windows 
never facing the street. Sometimes they have 
beautiful gardens and pleasant rooms, but often 
it is just the other way. They have few visitors 
and no male visitors at all, never seeing even 
their own brothers. The low caste women, 
though they lack many privileges the others 



lyi A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

have, yet have more freedom and are not 
secluded in this way." 

'' I 'd rather be low caste," said Marty. 

" Yon would n't rather be either if you knew 
all about it," said Miss Fanny. 

*' In visiting the poorer people," Mrs. Thurs- 
ton went on to say, ''when I Avas seen to enter a 
house the neighbors all around would flock in, so 
that I could talk with several families at once. 
But in visiting a zenana I only saw the inhabi- 
tants of that one house. To be sure there was 
generally quite a crowd of them, for the rich 
gentlemen often have several wives. Then 
there would be the daughters-in-law, for the 
sons all bring their wives to their father's 
house. Then all these ladies have female ser- 
vants to wait on them and who are constantly 
present, so altogether there would be quite a 
company." 

'' I suppose they would be glad to see you," 
suggested Mrs. Ashford. 

" Oh, yes. They welcome any change, their 
lives are so dull." 

'' What do they do with themselves all day 
long?" inquired Miss Fanny. ''I suppose they 
don't work, as they have plenty of servants to 
do everything for them. They don't shop or 
market or visit. They have no lectures or con- 
certs to attend. They are not educated, at least 



THE GARDEN MISSIONARY MEETING. 1 73 

not many of them ; and even if they could read, 
they have no books. Oh, what a life !" 

''What do they do, Mrs. Thurston?" Marty 
asked. 

" Well, they look over their clothes and 
jewels, spend a great deal of time every day in 
being- bathed in their luxurious way, and being 
dressed. Then they lounge about, gossip, and 
quarrel a good deal, I suspect. They are very 
fond of hearing what is going on, and the ser- 
vant who brings them the most news is the 
greatest favorite." 

"And that's the way so many women have 
lived for centuries !" sighed Ruth. 

"Things are improving somewhat now," said 
Mrs. Thurston. " Education for women is very 
much more thought of than in former years. A 
great many girls are now allowed to attend the 
Government and other schools, and many men 
in these days are anxious to have their v/ives 
educated. Some employ teachers to come to 
their houses and teach the inmates. If only all 
these women could receive a Christian education, 
India would soon be a delightfully different 
place." 

" How do the missionaries get into these 
zenanas?" Ruth inquired. "Do they go as 
teachers or visitors or — what ?" 

" In some cases missionary ladies have gained 



174 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

admission by going to teach these shut-in ladies 
fancy-work or something of the kind. Other 
times they contrive to get introduced in some 
way, going as visitors. But in every case they 
aim to make their visit the means of carrying 
the gospel to these women." 

*' Are they willing to have you talk on reli- 
gious subjects ?" asked Mrs. Ashford. 

" Some of them are not. You know there is, 
of course, as much diversity among them as 
among any other women. But after they have 
got used to our coming, and have examined our 
clothes and asked us all sorts of questions, some 
of them very childish ones, they generally listen 
to what we wish to say and become interested in 
the Bible and the story of the cross." 

Mrs. Thurston then spoke particularly of 
some of the houses she used to visit, told about 
the pretty little children and their pretty young 
mothers, what they all did and said, in a way 
that interested her hearers very much. She also 
told how some of these friends of hers had re- 
ceived the gospel message and were converted 
to Christ. '' And if you only understood the 
position of these people under this dreadful 
caste system, you would see what difficulties they 
have to contend with before they can come out 
on the Lord's side," she said. " But it is our 
duty and privilege to show them the right way. 



THE GARDEN MISSIONARY MEETING. 1 75 

the way of life, and shall we not do all in our 
power to send them the gospel ? Those of them 
who know about free and happy America are 
looking- to us for help. Did you ever hear some 
verses called ' Work in the Zenana ' ? I can 
repeat a couple of them. 

" ' Do you see those dusky faces 
Gazing dumbly to the West — 
Those dark eyes, so long despairing, 
Now aglow with hope's unrest? 

" ' They are looking, waiting, longing 
For deliverance and light ; 
Shall we not make haste to help them, 
Our poor sisters of the night ?' " 

There was a great deal more talk about India, 
Mrs. Thurston being besieged with questions, 
until Ruth feared she would be worn out, and 
said the meeting had better close. 

*' Oh ! I like to talk about my dear India," 
said Mrs. Thurston with a tearful smile ; *' and if 
it is any help to you all in your v/ork, I am only 
too willing to give you the help." 

" You have helped us ever so much," replied 
Ruth, '' and we are very grateful. I 'm sure we 
shall always feel the greatest interest in that 
wonderful old India, with its sore need of the 
gospel." 

'' Yes," said Almira, '' I feel now that every 
cent of money we can scrape together should be 
used for India." 



176 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

" Unfortunately it is not tlie only needy 
place in the world," said Miss Mary. 

" Well," said Ruth, '' we must just work hard 
and do all we can for heathen lands." 

Then they sang several hymns, Hiram and 
Hugh Campbell having carried Almira's melo- 
deon out to the garden, and closed by repeating 
the Lord's prayer in concert. 

During the singing Mrs. Stokes had slipped 
away, and Mrs. Ashford and Ruth exchanged 
smiling glances when they saw her standing by 
the garden-gate as the friends passed out, insist- 
ing that they should take some cookies and drop 
cakes from a basket she held. She would not 
hear of the hotel ladies getting into the carriage 
until they had partaken of the sliced cake and 
hot tea she had ready for them on the side 
porch. 

" Ah, this is the way you get around it, Mrs. 
Stokes!" said Ruth. 

^'Now, Ruth," exclaimed the good woman, 
"don't you say a word. I a' n't going to have 
these folks go back home all fagged out when a 
cup of tea will do 'em good." 

" This is another perfectly elegant missionary 
meeting," said Marty. " I wonder if Edith and 
the other girls are having as good a time as I 
am." 



COUSIN ALICE S ZEXANA WORK. 1 77 

CHAPTER XX. 

COUSIN ALICE'S ZENANA WORK. 

Mr. Ashford came up to the farmhouse 
about the first of September, and spent a week 
before taking his family home. So Marty did 
not arrive in time to be present at the first meet- 
ing of the band, but on the third Saturday of 
the month she was on hand with her budget of 
news. She had much to hear as well as to tell, 
and it would take a long time to relate all the 
missionary experiences of those travelled Twigs. 
Indeed, for several weeks something new was 
constantly coming up. It would be, " O Miss 
Agnes, I forgot to tell about such a thing." Or, 
" I just now remember what I heard at such a 
place. May I tell it?" 

Edith had attended a grand missionary meet- 
ing at the seaside, and Rosa had gone with her 
mother and elder sister to a missionary conven- 
tion, where she saw and heard several missiona- 
ries who were at home for rest, and also several 
new ones who v/ere going out soon. Others of 
the girls had attended band meetings where 
they were visiting, or had joined with other 
young workers in holding meetings in hotels 

A Missionary Twi-. I 2 



178 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

and cottages. But no one had, like Marty, been 
present at the forming of a band and helped it 
start. Nor had they, like her, become well 
acquainted with a real missionary. 

" Oh, I just had the nicest long talks with 
her!" said ^larty, meaning of course Mrs. Thurs- 
ton. *' I could ask her anything I wanted, you 
know. I even sat in her lap sometimes and 
hugged her real hard; and she would pat me 
and smooth my hair with the very same hands 
that used to do things for the little girls in 
India." 

*' How elegant it must have been to have a 
missionary meeting in that pretty old garden, 
and such a nice missionary there to tell you 
things !" said one of the girls. 

" It zi'^rs,'' replied Marty briefly but fervently. 

" Oh, I wish I could help start a band as 
Marty did !" exclaimed Daisy. 

" Perhaps you have helped, though you may 
not be there to see it start," said Miss Walsh. 
*' Perhaps what you told those little girls from 
Georgia about our band and missions in general 
vvall bear good fruit, and there may be after a 
while a brand-new band in that far-away South- 
ern town, that little Daisy helped to start." 

'' Oh, I do hope so," said Daisy, smiling and 
pressing her hands together. 

'' I think it would be nice to ask Martv's 



COUSIN ALICE'S ZENANA WORK. I 79 

mountain band to write to our band and tell us 
what they 're doing, and we '11 tell them what 
we 're doing," suggested Edith. 

"Oh, yes, yes!" cried some of the girls. 

After a little talk the suggestion was adopted. 
They all wanted Marty to be the one to write ; 
but she said, though of course she was going to 
w^ite to Evaline, she could not write a good 
enough letter to be read at the band, and would 
rather Mary Cresswell wrote. ]\Iiss Walsh deci- 
ded that would be the better way, as Mary was 
so much older and more accustomed to w^riting. 
It was too much to expect Marty to do. 

So Mary wrote a very nice letter — the Twigs 
were very proud of their bright secretary — in- 
closing a note of introduction from Marty. In 
course of time a reply was received from Almira 
thanking them all for their kind interest in the 
mountain band, and accepting the invitation to 
enter into a correspondence. This correspond- 
ence proved to be very pleasant and profitable 
to both parties. 

What pleased the Twigs particularly was 
that Almira told them the mountain band was 
very much indebted to one of their members, 
and it w^as likely the band would not have been 
formed that summer if it had not been for that 
member's help. Of course she meant Marty. 

It must not be supposed Marty had boasted 



l80 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

that she had done much towards getting the 
band organized. She only told in her childish 
way how it had come about, and the girls could 
not help seeing she had given all the aid pos- 
sible. 

Some of the other girls heard from members 
of bands they had met during the summer, and 
in this way several suggestions of ways of doing 
things were gathered up and acted upon. Miss 
Walsh said the whole summer experience had 
been very helpful. 

One of Marty's earliest visits after her return 
was paid to Jennie in company with Cousin 
Alice. They found the invalid sitting up in the 
comfortable rocking-chair, looking very much 
better. She was overjoyed to see them and had 
a great deal to say. She was so pleased that she 
happened to be up, and insisted on showing 
how she could take the three or four steps neces- 
sary to get from the bed to the chair. She told 
them the doctor said that after a while, if she 
was very careful, she would be able to walk. 
" Not, of course, that skippy way you do," she 
said to Marty, " but to kind o' get along." 

She also showed the crocheting she had 
done, and it was really very well done. As she 
seemed so much better, Miss- Alice asked the 
doctor if it would hurt her to study a little. He 
said it would not, and Miss Alice undertook to 



COUSIN ALICE'S ZENANA WORK. l8l 

teach her to read better, so that she could enjoy 
reading to herself. Jennie was glad of the 
chance to learn and made good progress, so that 
by Christmas, when Marty and Edith gave her 
the Bible they had talked of in the summer, she 
could read it quite well. 

" I think, after a while, w^hen Jennie gets still 
stronger," said Miss Alice one day at Mrs. Ash- 
ford's, " I will teach her something of arithmetic 
and writing, because she will never be able to go 
to school, and some knowledge of the kind will 
be useful to her. I will teach her to sew nicely, 
too, and when she is older she may be able to 
earn her living, even if she is lame and deli- 
cate." 

" What a good work you will be doing, 
Alice," cried Mrs. Ashford, ''if you help a poor, 
sickly, ignorant child to develop into an intelli- 
gent, self-helpful, and I hope Christian woman. 
Jennie will bless the day she first saw you." 

" Ah, but she never would have seen me but 
for you and Marty. In fact I don't think I 
should have taken much interest in her if my 
attention had not been attracted to her by 
Marty's self-denying gift of that doll." 

"And I don't believe I'd have taken much 
interest in her if it had n't been for hearing 
about the poor foreign children at the mission- 
band," said Marty. 



1 82 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

" Everything comes around to the mission- 
band first or last, does n't it?" said Cousin Alice, 
laughing. 

*' Pretty near everything," replied Marty seri- 
ously. " And then there 's Jimmy Torrence," 
she added presently. '' I do n't believe I 'd have 
been willing to have my ulster pieced for his 
sake if I had n't been hearing about those other 
forlorn children." 

She was glad to see Jimmy looking so much 
brighter and better. Though he did not know 
he owed his country visit to her, he remembered 
the cake she had given him and the kind words 
she had more than once spoken to him, so he 
often lingered on the stairs to see her as she 
passed in and out of Mrs. Scott's room, always 
greeting her with a bright smile. 

One Sunday Mrs. Scott made him and his 
next older sister as clean and respectable as pos- 
sible, and took them to church with her. The 
result was, some of the ladies of the church came 
around to see the Torrences, fitted the older 
ones out with decent clothes, and gathered them 
into the Sunday-school. 

Soon after this, one afternoon Miss Alice came 
into Mrs. Ashford's sitting-room, half laughing, 
and exclaimed as she sank into a chair, 

" Oh, Marty, how you and your mission work 
are getting me into business !" 



COUSIN ALICE'S ZEXAXA WORK. 1 83 

''Why, how?" demanded Marty. 

**0h, those TorrencesI" said Miss Alice, still 
laughing. 

''What about them? Do tell us," Marty 
insisted. 

" Well, one day as I was going to see Jennie, 
I saw the two little girls younger than Jimmy on 
the stairs, and they did look so cold this kind of 
weather in their ragged calico frocks, and not 
much else on. So I just went home, got my old 
blue flannel dress, bought a few yards of cotton 
flannel, and took them to !Mrs. Torrence to make 
some comfortable clothes for those poor chil- 
dren. And, Cousin Helen, will you believe it? 
I found the woman did n't know the first thing 
about cutting and making clothes!" 

" That is very strange," said ^Irs. Ashford. 
" How has she been getting along all this time 
with such a family?" 

" She depends on people giving her things, 
and on buying cheap ready-made clothing." 

" That is very thriftless." 

" Yes. But I ve heard it is the way so many 
poor people do. A great many of those women 
work in factories or shops before they are mar- 
ried, and afterwards, too, sometimes, and they 
have no time to learn to sew. When I found 
out about Mrs. Torrence I thought I would 
offer to show her how to cut and make those 



1 84 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

things. I thought doing that j>'ould be far 
greater charity than making them for her would 
be." 

''So it would." 

" To be sure she goes out washing now and 
then, but she has time enough to sew other 
days, as she only has those two little rooms 
to take care of, and she has n't been taking 
much care of them evidently." 

''I thought they only had one room," said 
Marty. 

''They have taken another now, as Mr. Tor- 
rence has steady work. Father got him a place 
in a livery stable, and he 's not a drinking man, 
so they ought to get along." 

" Well, how did Mrs. Torrence take your offer 
of help?" asked Mrs. Ashford. 

"She did not seem to like it at first. I sus- 
pect she thought I ought to make the garments 
myself. But after a while she came around 
and—" 

"Your pleasant ways would make anybody 
come around," exclaimed Marty warmly. 

"Thanks for the compliment," replied Miss 
Alice, smiling. "Well, the amount of it is I 
have been giving her lessons, and she is really 
beginning to do right well. The little tots look 
a great deal more comfortable, and now I am 
going to show her how to alter some of the 



COUSIN ALICES ZENAXA WORK. 185 

clothes the ^'' chodist Sunday-school ladies gave 
her, so that she will have something decent to 
wear herself." 

" I think you are getting into business !" 
exclaimed ^drs. Ashford. " It is certainly very 
good of you to take all that trouble. And I 
should imagine it is not the most comfortable 
place in the world in which to give sewing or 
any other kind of lessons. Now Mrs. Scott is 
different. Her room is always as neat as a pin." 

''Oh, yes I" cried Miss Alice, ''that reminds 
me there 's more to my story. These sewing 
lessons are actually making Mrs. Torrence 
cleaner and more tidy. The first day I went 
the table was all cluttered up, and when she 
cleaned it off for me to cut out on she looked 
rather ashamed of its dinginess, and muttered 
some excuse as she wiped it over with an old 
cloth. The next day that table looked as if she 
had been scrubbing it all night — it was so 
startlingly clean. She had scrubbed a chair, too, 
for me to sit on. Then I suppose she thought 
the clean table and chair put the rest of the 
room out of countenance, for on my next visit I 
found the floor had been scrubbed and the win- 
dows washed. When I told mother about it she 
said the woman should be encouraged, and sent 
her that striped rug that used to be in our dining- 
room, you remxcmber. It was to spread dov>^n 



1 86 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

before the stove. The result of that was the 
old stove has been polished up within an inch of 
its life. Yesterday I took to the children those 
gay pictures that came last Christmas with the 
Graphic, and tacked them on to the wall. Xow 
the next time I go I expect to see the walls 
scoured or whitewashed or something," and ^Miss 
Alice finished with a laugh. 

" If you keep on you will work quite a change 
in their way of living," said Mrs. Ashford. 

" There 's plenty of room yet for improve- 
ment," replied her cousin ; '' for although it must 
be pretty hard for such a large family to live in 
such a small space and be cleanly, still they 
might try to be." 

*' I should think the narrow space would be 
bad enough without the dirt." 

'' Well, things have been and are yet pretty 
forlorn. But I am glad I have been able to effect 
a little chanofe for the better." 

"But you said I got you into it," said ^larty, 
" and I do n't see what I have to do with it, nor 
what mission work has either." 

" I should have told you that one reason I 
thought of offering this help to ^Irs. Torrence is 
that it may perhaps give me an opportunity to 
say something to her on religious subjects. 
She takes no interest in such matters, never 
goes to church, and only allows her children to 



COUSIN ALICE S ZEXAXA WORK. 1 8/ 

go to Sunday-school for what people give them. 
The Bible-reader of that district tells me that 
Mrs. Torrence wont listen to her, wont let her 
go into the room. She is a sullen, ill-natured 
kind of woman — I mean ^Irs. Torrence — and 
hard to get at. So I thought I might possibly 
get at her in this way, and your account of mis- 
sionary ladies going to zenanas to teach fancy- 
work in order to get a chance to tell the women 
of God and the Bible, put it into my head that I 
might try something of the same kind." 

"Oh, it is just the same," cried Marty, ''ex- 
cept that it 's altering and mending instead of 
fancy-work. How curious it is that zenana work 
away off in India should make you think of help- 
ing a poor woman close by in Landis Court !" 

" Have you got !Mrs. Torrence to listen to 
you yet?" asked Mrs. Ashford. 

'' I have n't ventured to say anything directly 
to her yet, but I have been talking to the chil- 
dren about the Sunday-school lesson, explaining 
it to them and teaching them the Golden Text, 
and their mother is obliged to hear, whether she 
wants to or not." 

'' That 's just the way Mrs. Thurston says it 
is in those zenanas," said Marty. ''Many of the 
women at first do n't care to listen to good read- 
ing and teaching, and want to talk about all 
sorts of other things, so the missionaries have to 



1 88 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

work it in the best way they can, and after a 
while the women get interested and want to 
hear. It seems as if they could n't get enough 
Bible-reading and talk. Maybe that '11 be the 
way with Mrs. Torrence." 

''We will hope so," replied Cousin Alice. 



ROSA STEVENSONId SISTER. 1 89 



CHAPTER XXI . 

ROSA STEVENSON'S SISTER. 

As Christmas drew near Marty found her- 
self very busy, for besides some little presents 
she was making for her "own folks," she and 
her mother set to work to mend some of her old 
toys, to dress some new cheap dolls, and to make 
a few picture-books of bright pretty cards pasted 
on silesia and yellow muslin, for the little Tor- 
rences and other poor children they knew of. 

Edith, also, was engaged in the same way, 
and the little girls often worked together. 

Though they had received some money on 
their birthdays, they concluded to wait until 
Christmas to give Jennie her Bible, as every- 
body appeared to think it would be a very 
suitable Christmas gift for her. They got Mrs. 
Ashford to go with them to buy it, and with her 
aid succeeded in getting a very nice one, good 
size, clear print, and pretty cover, for the money 
they had set aside for the purpose. 

Their mothers gave them permission to run 
down the afternoon before Christmas to carry 
the Bible to Jennie, as there would not possibly 
be time to go Christmas day when there was so 



1 90 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

much going on. They were to call and ask 
Cousin Alice to go with them ; but when they 
stopped at her house they found she had already 
gone over to Landis Court, but had left word for 
them if they came to follow her. 

When they arrived at Mrs. Scott's room they 
found Miss Alice very busy indeed, hanging up 
some wreaths of green and otherwise decora- 
ting the room. She was hurrying to get it all in 
order before Mrs. Scott returned from her work, 
as it was to be a surprise to her. Jennie, sitting 
in the rocking-chair with the doll in her arms, 
was watching the operation with the greatest 
interest, every now and then exclaiming, ''Oh, 
that 's splendid ! What '11 mother say to that !" 

When Marty and Edith appeared something 
else seemed to occur to her, and turning from 
the decorations she cried eagerly to them, 

''Oh, did you get — !" and then glancing at 
Miss Alice, covered her mouth with her hand, 
laughed very much, but would not finish what 
she had begun to say. 

She nearly went wild over the beautiful Bible 
and could hardly thank the givers enough. 

"And I can read it my own self too, 'cepting 
of course the long words," she said. " How 
queer it '11 be to be sitting up reading a chapter 
to mother 'stead of her reading to me !" 

"You might read to her those Christmas 



ROSA STEVENSON S SISTER. I9I 

verses in Luke to-morrow that I read to you riot 
long ago," Miss Alice suggested. 

''Oh! I will. Where are they, I wonder?" 
said Jennie. 

Edith found the place, while Marty snipped 
off a little bit of her blue hair-ribbon for a 
mark. 

Some cakes and fruit Mrs. Howell and Mrs. 
Ashford sent Jennie were also highly appre- 
ciated. They had also sent some small but 
useful and pretty presents for her mother, 
which Jennie was to have the pleasure of giv- 
ing to her. Thus they all tried to bring some 
Christmas joy into the poor little girl's life. 

When Marty and Edith went home they each 
found a small parcel that Jimmy Torrence had 
left for them. They contained nicely crochetted 
bureau-covers for their dolls' houses, and were 
marked in Miss Alice's handwriting, " For Marty, 
from Jennie," and "For Edith, from Jennie." 

" Ah ! this was the secret she had with Cousin 
Alice," exclaimed Marty. "Just look mamma! 
is n't it a pretty cover ?" 

Edith was equally pleased with hers, and Jem 
nie seemed much pleased with their hearty 
thanks. 

"I really believe she enjoyed making and 
giving those little things more than any other 
part of Christmas," said Miss AHce. " I suppose 



192 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

it made her feel as if she was in the Christmas 
times." 

Marty never enjoyed any Christmas season so 
much as this one, when she worked so hard to 
give happiness to the poor. She had her temp- 
tations to overcome, too ; for when the stores were 
filled with beautiful things that she would like 
to buy for herself or her friends, it was very hard 
to keep from entrenching on the money she had 
saved up for a special Christmas missionary 
offering. But her year's training in missionary 
giving had not gone for nothing, and she was 
able to make a missionary offering a part of her 
Christmas celebration. 

The members of the band had not forgotten 

the talk they had had over Mrs. C 's letter, 

when they resolved to try very hard to double 
their usual amount. The most of them were 
trying, and the sum was '' rolling up," the treas- 
urer said. Whether or not they would succeed 
in what they were aiming at, remained to be 
seen, but Miss Walsh encouraged them by saying 
that they would certainly come much nearer suc- 
cess by making continual efforts than by making 
no effort at all. 

One morning when the holidays were over, 
and the little girls were on their way to school, 
Edith had a great piece of news to tell. 

''What do you think I" she said. "Rosa 



ROSA STEVENSON S SISTER. 1 93 

Stevenson's grown-up sister is going away next 
month to be a missionary !" 

" Is she really ?" exclaimed Marty. 

*' Yes ; going to Japan, and Miss Agnes has 
asked her to come to the meeting next Saturday 
and tell us about it." 

The news ■ spread, and the next Saturday 
every one of the Twigs was there, gazing with 
wide-open eyes at the fair young girl who was 
going so far from home to carry the gospel to 
her ignorant sisters. Sitting there with tearful 
Rosa's hand clasped in hers, she told the girls 
that when she was studying in college, God had 
put it into her heart to carry the tidings of his 
salvation to the people who knew him not. She 
said that though it was very hard to leave home 
and friends, she felt it was her duty and privilege 
to go, and she was thankful that the way was 
open for her. 

Then she showed them on the map what city 
she was going to, and told them something of 
the school in which she was to teach. She prom- 
ised to write to the band some time, and in clo- 
sing she earnestly appealed to them to do all they 
could for missions. 

*' Even be ready to go yourself if God calls 
you," she said. '' When I was a little girl in a 
mission-band, saving up pennies and learning 
about these foreign lands, I never thought that 

A Missionary Twig. J •^ 



194 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

one day I should be going to teach the girls of 
one of these countries and try to win them to 
Christ. So there may be some among you whom 
God will call to this work, and I hope none of 
you will slight his call, but be ready to do his 
will in this matter as in all others." 

Marty was very deeply impressed by what 
Miss Stevenson said. She thought it would be a 
grand thing to go away off as a missionary. She 
wondered if God would call her to go. She 
hoped he would. Only she would not wish to go 
to such a civilized country as Japan ; the very 
worst part of Africa or the wildest part of Asia 
would be what she would choose. 

Her mind was so full of the subject that she 
did not want to talk about anything else, or to 
talk at all, and was glad that Edith was going to 
her aunt Julia's from the meeting, so she could 
walk home alone. She concluded that as soon as 
she reached home, she would go into her room 
and pray that she might be a missionary. Then 
she could not wait until she got home, and being 
on a quiet street, she slipped behind a tree-box 
and offered this little prayer: "Dear Lord, if 
missionaries are still needed by the time I grow 
up, I pray thee let me be one. For Jesus Christ's 
sake. Amen." 

She walked in home very soberly for her, 
and going directly to her mother, asked, 



ROSA STEVENSON S SISTER. 1 95 

'' Mamma, should you like me to go away 
over the seas and be a missionary ?" 

" No, indeed !" said her mother emphatically. 
" I should not like it at all. You must n't think 
of such a thing." 

'' But if God calls me to go?" said Marty, with 
quivering lip. 

It would be hard, after all, to leave this dear 
home. She scarcely knew whether she w^anted 
her prayer answered or not. 

" What do you mean ?" inquired Mrs. Ash- 
ford, drawing her on her lap. 

Then Marty told all about the meeting, and 
what she had been thinking, and how she had 
prayed to be a missionary. 

'' I want to be one if God wants me to, but I 
don't see how I ca7i go away and leave you all," 
she said, half crying. 

"Well," said her mother soothingly, seeing 
she was trembling with excitement, ''we need 
not talk about it yet. It will be a long time until 
you are old enough or know enough to go. You 
will have to go to school many years yet, and 
then, perhaps, to college, for you know the better 
missionaries are educated the more good they 
can do. Then you must learn to make your own 
clothes and take care of them, and it is w^ell to 
know a good deal about housekeeping also, for 
missionaries have to know how to be independ- 



196 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

ent, and be ready for any kind of life. You 
would hardly be prepared to go before 3'ou are 
twenty, anyway, and that is ten years yet." 

" Nine and a half," put in Alarty. 

" In the meantime you can be doing as much 
as possible for missions at home." 

" Yes," said Marty, wiping her eyes and look- 
ing comforted, " that 's so. We need n't think of 
my going away yet, and I s'pose the right way is 
to do as Miss Agnes says. She says the best way 
in mission work, as in everything else, is just to 
do the nearest thing and do it as well as we pos- 
sibly can, and then be willing to let God lead us 
along from one step to another." 

''She is certainly right," said Mrs. Ashford. 

'' I have taken some steps since Edith got me 
started, have n't I ? I 've learned a good deal 
about missions, and I find it a great deal easier 
to give money regularly now than when I be- 
gan. Do n't you remember how at first I either 
wanted to give every cent I had or else not to 
give anything? But I found out that wasn't the 
best way to do." 

" And another thing," said Mrs. Ashford, 
"you have been the means of some of the rest 
of us taking steps. Seeing how well your sys- 
tematic giving is working, I have started in to 
do the same way." 

*' Oh ! /lazr you, mamma?" exclaimed Marty. 



ROSA STEVENSON S SISTER. 1 97 

" Are you going to have a box for tenths ? How 
delightful !" 

'' No, not a box — my square Russia-leather 
pocketbook. And not tenths exactly, but what 
you call the New Testament way." 

''That's just lovely!" said Marty, caressing 
her. '' I 'm so glad. So we 11 both be mission 
workers the rest of our lives, wont we ?" 

'' With God's help, we will," replied her mo- 
ther. 

'' And p'r'aps dear little Freddie will begin, 
too, when he gets old enough. You know there 
are boy bands. But where is Freddie ? He was 
here when I came in." 

Just then a high-pitched little voice from the 
next room called, '' Whoop ! Marty!" 

" There he is. I wonder what sort of a funny 
place he 's hiding in this time," said Marty, 
laughing and running to see. 

Freddie had taken one of his papa's large 
handkerchiefs out of the lower drawer of the bu- 
reau, and spreading it out over his head was 
standing in the middle of the room, hiding. 
How he laughed when Marty found him ! 

Soon after ^Irs. Ashford and Marty began 
studying the Bible with the help of the concord- 
ance, they agreed that it would be pleasant to 
read a chapter together every night before Mar- 
ty went to bed. Sometimes she was too sleepy 



198 A MISSIONARY TWIG. 

to read more than a few verses, but generally she 
tried to get ready in good time so that she would 
be wide enough awake to read a whole chapter, 
unless it was a very long one. 

They were reading in Luke's Gospel now, 
but the evening of this day Marty said, 

** Mamma, may n't we read that chapter that 
has in it, ' Here am I ; send me ' ? Miss Steven- 
son read that verse to us to-day when she was 
talking about us going, any of us. Do you know 
where it is?" 

"I think I can find it pretty easily," Mrs. 
Ashford replied. " I know it is in Isaiah. Here 
it is — the sixth chapter." 

They read it, and the eighth verse coming to 
Marty, she read slowly and reverently, 

"Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying. 
Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? 
Then said I, Here am I ; send me." 

After they had finished reading, she said, 

''I think that is a very hard chapter. The 
only verses in it that I understand are this one 
where it says, ' Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of 
hosts,' and the eighth verse about ' Whom shall 
I send?'" 

" Well," said her mother, '' if you understand 
those two, they will give you plenty to think of, 
and when you are older you will be able to 
understand more." 



ROSA STEVENSON S SISTER. I99 

After a moment's silence Marty said, 

" You were saying a while ago that I 'd have 
to go to school and learn a great deal before I 
could be a missionary. I s'pose I '11 have to 
study the Bible a great deal too." 

" Oh, of course. I did n't mention that par- 
ticularly, because I took it for granted you would 
know that any one who undertakes to show 
others the way of life must know the way her- 
self, and the Bible is the book that points out 
that way. You remember Jesus says, ' Search 
the Scriptures; they are they which testify of 
me.'" 

" But how am I ever to learn ? Some people 
seem to know just where everything is, all the 
verses that explain other verses, and so on. 
They can so easily find something in the Old 
Testament that exactly fits into something in 
the New Testament. I often wonder how they 
do it." 

"They love the Word of God, study it, and 
pray over it." 

"I want to love it too," said Marty, pressing 
her face against the open Bible on her mother's 
knee. " Whether I 'm a missionary or not, I 
want to be a Christian and do some work for the 
Lord." 



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